Teddy
by bookworm1256
Summary: A series of one shots about Harry and Teddy starting with Harry going to see baby Teddy and Andromeda after the final battle
1. Meeting

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the characters in this story

Harry stood alone on the front steps, listening to the soft patter of rain and staring at the door in front of him. Ron and Hermione had offered to accompany him, Ginny had wanted to be with him, but he refused. There would be other times, many, many more surely. But this time, the first time, he needed to come alone.

It was the first time he'd been away from them since the final battle. If what he was doing didn't command all his thoughts, he might have been panicking, looking for their faces, reaching for them, needing to see and feel them to reassure himself that they were alright. But as it was, all he could think about was the door, and what lay on the other side.

The idea had come to him the morning after the battle, once he was able to think again. He'd sent the owl first thing and waited in eagerness and dread for the response. Andromeda's letter was short, simple and to the point: please come. So he had.

Trying to hold himself together, Harry took a great breath and knocked. The sound seemed to ring out, too loud in the hush that fell around the house. He listened to the muffled noises from inside as he waited; then the door swung open and Andromeda Tonks stood facing him.

Before he could repress it, the memory of the last time he had seen her swept over him. Fresh from battle, injured and in shock, and scared out of his mind for all the people he'd left behind, she and her husband had sheltered him, healed his injuries…

She looked much the same as she had nearly a year ago; the semblance to her sister plane in her features, yet her hair was lighter, her eyes wider and kinder. Her face was more lined than it had been, her hair grayer. She looked as if she'd aged more than just a year.

For a moment they looked at each other, the things that had happened since last they'd seen one another seemed to hang in the air between them. Then she stepped aside for him to come in. The house was also much as he remembered it; neat, warm, and inviting.

"He's through here," Andromeda said quietly, leading him to the living room. It hadn't changed since last Harry had been there, except for a small cradle that now sat in the corner. Harry crossed over to it and gazed down at the bundle of blankets in which a tiny baby with lime green hair was sleeping peacefully.

Harry felt as if he'd been cemented in place. He couldn't identify the emotions that were racing through him, twisting in his stomach, squeezing his chest, burning his throat. His hands jerked forward as if he wanted to pick the baby up, but he stopped himself, gripping the edge of the cradle instead. He just looked down at him… something that Teddy Lupin's parents would never do again. He gripped the cradle so tightly his knuckles turned white then he let it go. His hands dropped limply to his sides, he bowed his head and turned away.

Andromeda still stood in the doorway. She caught his gaze and he looked away, not wanting to see blame or pain there.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so, so sorry." He knew the words were laughably insignificant, knew that they could never make things right, but they were all he had.

"Look at me," Andromeda said quietly. It was an order and Harry obeyed before he could stop himself. She was looking at him steadily. Harry could not read her expression.

"My daughter and her husband died to make this a better world. They would not have had it any other way. You and I both know this, there is no blame." She held his gaze a second longer, then crossed the room and scooped Teddy up out of his cradle. "Do you want to hold him?"

Before he could answer, she had pressed the bundle into his chest and arranged his arms to hold the baby. Harry scarcely breathed, afraid if he moved, the fragile creature nestled in his arms might break.

He had never held a baby before. Teddy's warm little body rested snugly against his chest, fingers in his mouth as he slept; so peaceful, so innocent, so helpless. Harry could feel him breathing, thought he could see some small traces of Tonks and Lupin in his face; evidence that some part of them lived on.

He did not know how long he stood there, unable to take his eyes away from his godson. Several things seemed to be slipping into place. The world seemed to have forgotten about gravity after the final battle, but now it was beginning to right itself. Its center, which had been Voldemort and finishing him, was shifting.

**A/N: I don't know if I'm done with this yet or not. I might add some other one shots about Harry and Teddy as Teddy grows up. Let me know if you think I should and Please Review! **


	2. Jitters

Disclaimer: Don't own any of these characters or Harry Potter. That's JK's stuff.

Harry was nervous.

All through picking out the ring and proposing and talking endlessly about dresses and cake designs and guest lists and all the minute details of wedding planning, he'd been fine. He didn't know why he had to pick tonight for it all to hit him; the night before he got married.

He hadn't been one bit nervous until he'd collapsed into bed and it all washed over him. Marriage. Family. People's lives depending on you. The ideas sent jolts of excitement and terror as powerful as lightning shuddering through him in equal measure.

There was no doubt in his mind that this was what he wanted. He hadn't ever really expected to live long enough to have this and since the war ended, all he'd wanted was to marry Ginny and enjoy the calm and happiness and normalcy that he'd never had before. But as he stood on the precipice of it all…He was nineteen, she was eighteen. He had rarely felt so young and unprepared. Marriage was for adults. How the hell was he supposed to take care of her? Of the family they would have?

Harry was used to people's lives depending on him, but in a very different manner. Usually it was life or death and he could rely on adrenalin and instinct until it was over. That method wouldn't work for this. This was a lifetime.

Ron's advice wasn't exactly helpful either.

"You don't have anything to worry about. You're bloody Harry Potter! The Chosen One, The Boy Who Lived, destroyer of horcruxes. You defeated You-Know-Who…twice! Marriage ought to be a cinch after that," Ron told him before the rehearsal, clapping on the back. "You'll just do what you always do when you do mad stuff: figure something out."

It was times like these that he wished Hermione wasn't closeted up with his bride doing top-secret Made-of-honor things.

Harry lay awake in the camp bed he was once again sleeping in up in Ron's attic bedroom, these thoughts swirling madly, sickeningly around in his head. What in the world was he getting himself into?

A faint cry rose up the staircase from the floor below. Teddy had fallen asleep during the dinner, so they had tucked him into an empty bed rather than waking him up to go home with Andromeda. They'd offered her a bed too, but she'd declined, saying it was crowded enough.

Glad of an excuse to get up, Harry rolled out of bed and stumbled down the stairs to Teddy's room. He stopped at the door, surprised to see light seeping across the dim hallway from under the crack. Apparently someone had beaten him to it.

Cautiously, Harry pushed the door open, expecting to see Mrs. Weasley or maybe Hermione. But it was Ginny who sat on the bed with Teddy curled in her arms. Her eyes were closed as she gently rocked Teddy from side to side, humming softly. Something about the image of Ginny bathed in the lamplight, looking so peaceful as she soothed the small child, calmed him.

Very quietly, he slipped into the room and sat down next to her. She smiled and leaned against his shoulder. Teddy was already half asleep in her arms, but when he spotted Harry, his hair changed to jet black and he stretched a hand towards him, staring at him with big, trusting eyes. Harry wrapped an arm around Ginny and let Teddy grab hold of his fingers.

Neither one said anything as Teddy slipped back off to sleep, but Harry felt a calm settling inside of him. He didn't need to worry so much. Certainly things had never been easy for him, but the worst was behind him, and he had Ginny to turn to. That's what this whole marriage thing was about. He didn't have to figure everything out on his own, and no matter what happened, they were in it together. She had known what to do tonight, and beaten him to it, after all.

Sitting here in the silence with her and little Teddy, it felt more right than anything else ever had. This was what he wanted more than anything else in the world, and that longing, that rightness, eclipsed all other worries or fears.

Everything would be okay, and if it wasn't, he wasn't alone.

**A/N: What do you think? Please review!**


	3. Why?

**A/N: This story is the hardest to post! I said in my deleted author' s note that I was waiting to publish things because I wanted to do it chronological order. So I finally decide I'm not going to be able to fill that big age gap between Harry and Ginny's wedding and James being born so I might as well post the later. Then inspiration strikes at 4 in the morning and I come up with this! I'll post it as the next chapter now so it doesn't get super confusing I guess, but when I update again I'll switch it with James being born so it's all in order. **

**Okay, well, this one's pretty short and maybe not as good as I'd like it to be ****but here it is. I hope this doesn't get redundant, Harry being the voice of wisdom and comforting his godson. I'll add some other things too, I promise, but right now that's the general theme for future chapters. IDEAS PLEASE! **

Teddy was three years old when he asked the first question: "Why are Mummy and Daddy gone?" Nothing more than an innocent, round-eyed toddler who was sure Harry had all the answers just like he was sure the sky was blue and he was sure he liked chocolate milk.

Those six words were the beginning of a whole new vista of problems and decisions Harry had always known he'd have to face. Harry wasn't Teddy's father, he wasn't even his legal guardian, but from the minute he laid eyes on the kid he might as well have been.

Remus and Tonks were his parents. Ted was his grandfather. And Harry had always known that one day Teddy would ask about them, and he would have to explain it as best he could.

When Teddy asked that first question, Harry only smiled sadly at him while he tried to muster up what he'd been subconsciously planning to say when this moment came.

"They were brave, good people who loved you very much and they wanted to stop the bad things in this world from ever hurting you."

Teddy sat in thought for a moment, then, looking a little frustrated, asked "But why are they _gone_?" This was the part that he never understood. His parents were good guys. The good guys always won. Why were his parents gone?

Harry sighed and scooped Teddy up from where he was curled at his feet. How did you explain death to a three-year-old?

"They...they had to o away," Harry said lamely. Teddy only looked at him as if to say "that's all you've got?" Sighing, Harry tried again. "They had to go somewhere else, but they still love you very much."

"Will they come back?" Teddy asked.

Harry's throat was tight as he replied, "No Teddy. They can't come back."

"Why not? Vicky's got her mummy and daddy, why haven't I got mine? It's not fair!" tears were sliding down Teddy's cheeks now. He burried his face in Harry's chest and Harry rubbed his back soothingly, trying to come up with the answer to the question he'd been asking all his life. Of course he couldn't. No one could.

"No, it's not fair at all is it? I don't have a mummy or a daddy either you know."

Teddy sat up and looked at him with streaming eyes. "You-you don't?"

"No I don't."

Something Luna had told him a long time ago came back to him and he added, "But that doesn't mean we won't ever get to see them again. Someday we'll go where they are and we'll see them again."

"When?"

"A long time from now."

Teddy seemed to hear the saddness in Harry's voice because he didn't ask anything else. He just rested his head on Harry's shoulder and clutched his shirt like it was the only solid thing in the world and wouldn't let go for anything until he'd fallen asleep there in Harry's lap.

**A/N: I'm sooo sorry about these ;) I know I do these all the time, it's like I'm addicted to them (A/Ns that is if I'm being confusing again) anyway I hope you liked this! Special thanks go out to authorEmilyRae who helped me fix this up and is awesome for that! **


	4. Replacement

**A/N: So I was kinda stupid and posted an author's note telling you it might be a while before I got another chapter done, then I finished the next chapter and posted it the next day. Yeah, I know, I'm a liar :D (At the time it was true though) anyway, so I deleted the author's note when I added the chapter so it didn't really look like I added another chapter, but I did! Just in case that was confusing, there is no author's note anymore, there is an actual chapter two, so if anyone missed it, please read and review! Okay enough boring author's note. On with the story. Oh yeah, I don't own any of this. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling in case anyone reading this is, like from under a rock or Mars or something and doesn't know that. **

Harry's house was Teddy's favorite place in the world, but right now he wanted to go home. Nobody noticed him slip out of the living room and up the stairs; they were all too busy cooing over that tiny, wrinkled, gurgling, pink _thing. _Teddy didn't know what the big deal was. He'd seen a lot of Weasley babies and they all seemed pretty much the same to him.

He reached his room and shut the door firmly behind him. Of course, it wasn't really _his _room, it was just where he stayed when he came to visit. Teddy lay down on his stomach and wriggled under the bed to grab his backpack. Then he began throwing things into it.

He tried to stay mad about how grown-ups could get so worked up about the stupidest things, but all he could see was Ginny holding the screaming new intruder and beaming down at it like it was the most magnificent thing in the world and Harry with his arms around them both, more excited and overjoyed than Teddy had ever seen him, even in pictures. Teddy wondered if they'd all gone gooey-eyed over _him._ Then he wondered if _his_ parents had looked at him like that when he was born. He'd probably never know.

He picked up the copy of _The Tales of Beatle the Bard _that Harry always read to him before he went to sleep when he stayed over, and flung it across the room at his back pack. It missed by a mile and hit the opposite wall with a loud thud before sliding down the wall and landing awkwardly in the crack between the wall and the bed.

Teddy crossed the room angrily to pick up the book. He could hear the little alien creature down stairs wailing at the top of its tiny lungs and tried to ignore it. It was just a reminder of the fact that, no matter how much he pretended he was, Teddy wasn't _really _part of Harry's family. He picked up _The Tales of Beatle the Bard _to put in his backpack, but to his horror, it fell apart in his hands. The well-worn binding had torn, pages cascaded onto the bed and down the crack in a plume of ink and paper.

"No!" Teddy cried, grabbing at the pages trying to stick them back in the book, but the covers gave way and split completely along the spine. Teddy dropped the book and threw himself on top of the mess of paper; feeling tears prickle his eyes and stick painfully in his throat.

The door opened. "Teddy?"

It was Harry. Teddy didn't move. On top of being mad at his godfather for…well he didn't know exactly why, he didn't want Harry to find him sobbing over a book. He felt Harry sit down on the bed next to him.

"What's going on?"

Teddy didn't answer right away. Sniffling and trying to wipe his eyes without Harry seeing (and failing miserably) he pushed himself up enough so he could talk.

"Th-the book broke," he hiccupped. "My dad got it for me before I was even born…and-and I broke it." He buried his face in the blankets, now sobbing uncontrollably. Harry put a hand on his back, Teddy tried to roll away, but Harry pulled him gently into a sitting position.

"It's okay," he said soothingly, pulling out his wand. "We can fix it, look."

He waved his wand and the pages flew back together, the binding repaired itself, and the book dropped lightly onto the bed, good as new. Teddy picked it up, whipping his eyes, and leafed through the pages to make sure it really was fixed. "Thanks," he muttered thickly.

"So what are you doing up here?" Harry asked, looking around at the half full backpack sitting on the bed.

These words reminded Teddy why he'd come up here in the first place, and, with his book put back together, he started putting things in his bag again. "I'm packing," he told Harry.

"But aren't you staying a little longer?" Harry asked him, a little confused. Teddy usually had to be dragged away from his house when it came time for him to go home.

"I don't want to." Teddy didn't look at him. It was hard to stay mad when Harry was right there, looking at him and talking to him. But then a cry rose form downstairs and Harry glanced over at the door and Teddy found it a lot easier to be mad.

"Why don't you want to stay?" Harry asked him, and when Teddy's only answer was to drop to the floor so he could fish out his socks from under the dresser, Harry thought he understood. He sighed to himself. He'd been afraid this might happen. He hadn't given it much thought, hoping that he was being irrational.

"If you don't want to stay, we won't make you. But I really wish you would. We've barely had any time to chat since James was born. I've missed you, you know."

Teddy paused, letting these words sink in, but didn't turn around.

"Well," he said finally, "you don't really need me anymore, do you? I mean you've got your own baby now."

"Teddy!" Harry said, shaking his head and pulling the little boy onto his knee. "We will always need you, you understand? James hasn't changed that."

"But I'm not really your family," Teddy sniffled, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Of course you are!" Harry exclaimed. "You think family is only the people you're related too? Just the people who share your blood or your name? That's not what really matters. I know better than anybody your family is the people who love you and need you. You will always be a part of our family Teddy Lupin."

Teddy looked around at him and saw that Harry was smiling.

"Really?"

'Absolutely. James is going to need someone to keep an eye on him, and as godbrother, I think that responsibility lies with you."

"Godbrother?" Teddy asked.

"Well, I'm your godfather aren't I?" Harry was grinning now and Teddy couldn't help but giggle too.

James gave another loud wail from the living room and this time Teddy smiled. He supposed this kid wasn't so bad after all. It might be fun to be a godbrother.

**A/N: Please Please Please review! Your reviews will make the next chapter come out sooner :D **


	5. Train Station

**A/N: sooooooo sorry about how long this has taken. I got stuck and all the ideas I had were for when Teddy was older and I couldn't get any of them right! Oh yeah, I also added to the last chapter I posted, and switched some stuff around so everything is nice and chronological…for now. So now the chapter before this is James being born and the one before that is Teddy asking questions. That's the one I added too. I gave Harry a better explanation and Teddy a few more questions. **

**Anyway, this isn't as much about Harry as I thought it would be, but it's a nice change since the next few chapters are probably going to be back to just the two of them and since Teddy'll be a teenager…well remember what Harry was like during puberty? Well, I hope you like it!**

"Come on, Teddy! What are you waiting for?" one of Teddy's friends said impatiently from the compartment doorway.

Teddy shrugged as he pulled his jacket on as slowly as possible. It was summer and blazing hot outside, but anything to stall right?

"You go ahead, Rob," Teddy told his friend. "I'll write you as soon as I get home and maybe you can come to stay soon."

Rob hesitated. "What are you taking so long for anyway? Don't you want to go home?"

"Of course I do, I'm just lazy," Teddy explained, grinning.

Rob scrutinized him for a moment longer. "Okay, if you say so. You better write me loads this summer. I don't think I can handle only having my sisters to talk to. And they're bringing home all their giggly friends," he made a face.

Teddy laughed and waved him away. "See ya!"

"See ya Teddy!"

The second Rob disappeared, Teddy felt the grin slide off his face. It wasn't that he didn't want to go home; he missed his grandmother a lot and couldn't wait to be back in his own room. No, it was just that he was dreading going through the barrier, especially with Rob.

Rob came from a big family. He had four older sisters and one little sister plus both his parents and grandparents and lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. They were always buzzing around his house, from all the letters he got and the stories he'd tell. Teddy just had his grandmother. He loved her very much and thought she was brilliant, but it was just her.

Everybody else had families waiting for them. They all had parents and brothers and sisters ready to mob them and hear all about their school year. And as much as they might complain about their families during the year, Teddy knew they all couldn't wait to see them. Teddy didn't have that.

He heaved his trunk off the luggage rack and began to drag his feet toward the train doors. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Teddy told himself sternly, it never does you any good. Besides, he thought, he did have a family. Harry and Ginny and the Weasleys told him often enough. They just weren't the sort of family that came to collect you from the train station.

Harry had come to send him off. Ginny had made a big meal the night before and James had planted himself firmly on Teddy's foot and insisted tearfully that Teddy bring him, too. The memory still made him grin a little, but that was the send off. Everyone makes a big deal about your first time to Hogwarts, especially if you're the first to go, but it only really requires one person to come and get you.

The queue to go through the barrier had shrunk to only a few people. Teddy heaved his trunk onto an abandoned trolley and pushed it across the emptying platform. When the guard signaled for Teddy to go through, he pulled a grin onto his face and complied.

"Teddy! There he is Daddy! There's Teddy!" the squeal rose above the din filling the station, and, looking in its direction, Teddy felt a real grin spread across his face. Forgetting about his trunk, he dashed toward them.

A little body broke away and hurtled towards him at top speed.

"Teddy!" James shouted, colliding so hard with Teddy's legs he nearly knocked him over.

"Hey buddy," Teddy laughed, ruffling the little boy's already-messy hair.

"Teddy you're back! And I'm five now," James told him importantly, puffing out his chest. "Al's still only three though, but Lily's two and she doesn't suck her thumb anymore 'cause that's for babies and Lily's not a baby. Guess what Teddy? I got a broom! It's just like yours, too! I asked for one just like yours and that's what Daddy got me. It's the best! We can play Quidditch now!" James jabbered away excitedly, barely stopping to take a breath as he tugged on Teddy's hand, pulling him towards the waiting group.

But Teddy hardly needed to be pulled anywhere. A few steps away, Teddy was ambushed again. Albus and Rose flung themselves at him, shrieking and giggling and yelling his name as loudly as they could. Then Ginny and Hermione and his grandmother were hugging and kissing him and Ron and Harry were clapping him on the back and everybody was asking him a million different questions at once.

"How do you like Hogwarts?"

'How did your exams go?"

"Don't ask him that! Honestly, will you ever give it a rest? Who won the house cup?"

"Oh, because that's so important!"

"It kind of is, but who got the Quidditch cup? That's the most important."

"Not you too! Honestly, will _you two_ ever give it a rest?"

"Probably not, but Quidditch is the most important, who won?"

"What subject do you like best?"

"Do you have good teachers?"

"Of course he does! Neville's the Herbology teacher!"

Teddy grinned to himself at all the clamor. Albus and Rose were still attempting to climb him, Lily was wriggling desperately in her mother's arms, shrieking his name and other random words he couldn't quite make sense of. James was still jabbering non-stop at his side. He couldn't stop grinning. Yup, he was home.

In all the commotion, Teddy found his godfather and, undercover of the mob, gave him a quick hug. "Thanks," he said, grinning up at him. This had to have been his idea. Harry smiled. "Anytime."

**A/N: Hi again! So what did you think? Good, bad, in between? Please let me know and if you have any ideas about future chapter please tell me! I love ideas! Well I just wanted to let you know that since school is starting once again, updates will be even more spotty than they have been. I'm really sorry about this and I hope you'll bare with me :D I'll try to make them extra-good if they take soooo long and reviews and ideas will keep me going! **


	6. Scared

**A/N: Thank you sooo much to everyone who reviewed, and especially to everyone who gave me ideas! You are so awesome! Well, this one came out sooner than I thought it would. I've had a hard time getting my ideas to come out right lately, so we'll see how this one is. I've also skipped more than I meant to. I'll just be posting out-of-order again, ugh! Anyways, Teddy's older in this one, that is, not a little kid at least, so it's a little more serious. Tell me what you think!**

Teddy thought he'd been scared before.

He'd thought he'd been scared when he was six and he'd wondered off and gotten lost in the wood near the burrow. It felt like he'd been in there for hours and no matter which direction he ran, he couldn't find an end to the trees. He'd just curled into a ball and begun to cry when Harry found him and scooped him up and carried him back to the house (which was only about 50 yards away).

He'd thought he'd been scared when he was nine and Victoire had fallen out of the tree in her back yard and hit the ground with a nasty crack. But it wasn't her neck, like Teddy had feared, just her wrist and her mother had fixed it in a second.

He'd thought he'd been scared when he was twelve and had accidentally stumbled across a bogart in Grimauld Place. The thing had turned into the bodies of all the people he cared about, one after the other, until Harry and Ginny had heard him screaming and come rushing in. Harry got rid of the thing in a second and Ginny had hugged him good and tight to stop his shaking.

But not until he was 15 did Teddy really know what it was like to be scared.

When Ginny came stumbling into the living room, looking pale and wild-eyed and said, "Daddy's in St. Mongo's again," was the first time Teddy was really scared.

Harry had been hurt before. He and Ron, being the best in the department, were usually put on the most dangerous cases and both of them had landed in the hospital a fair few times, but Teddy knew this was really bad because Ginny was panicked. She usually kept a calm, brave front for the kids so they wouldn't get scared. But this time was different.

Six of the longest hours of Teddy's life later, he was slumped against the wall in the hallway of St. Mongo's with Lily, who was barely five, curled up against his side and Albus and James next the them, unusually still and quiet for the constantly-bickering seven and eight year olds they were.

Ginny was arguing with a healer not far away. She was bone-white and the hard, blazing look hadn't left her face in six hours. The healers wouldn't give them straight answers. Everyone of them, from Ginny right down to Lily, had asked more than once if Harry would be okay, but all they'd say was that they were doing all they could.

For six hours Teddy had sat here on the cold, tiled floor, watching the healers rush in and out of Harry's room, carrying potions and saying scary things like "severe blood lose" and "breathing abnormalities". For six hours the idea that his godfather might really be gone this time swirled in his brain, turning his blood cold and squeezing all the air from his lungs. For six hours Teddy had been regretting every rude word he'd ever said to Harry, every one of the few arguments they'd ever had, and silently screaming that he'd take them all back. This had been the longest six hours of his life; six hours of hell.

Then the door to Harry's room, which had ominously been closed for the last hour and a half swung open and a haggard-looking healer appeared. The hall (though it had never been loud,) went utterly silent as all eyes fixed on the healer. The silent second before she began to talk seemed to stretch on far too long. Teddy braced himself for the worst. He couldn't read the healer's expression.

Then her face broke into a weary smile. "He's going to be okay."

Ginny let out a sort of strangled sob as she collapsed against the wall behind her. Relief more powerful that he'd thought possible flooded through Teddy at these five words. The cold, dark future he'd been imagining vanished in a second. He buried his face in his arms feeling as if he'd never breathed properly before.

From far away, above his head, he heard Ginny ask the healer, "Can we see him?"

The healer hesitated. Peeking up at her from beneath his shock of jet black hair (his preferred turquoise shade was a bit exuberant for the place and the occasion) he saw the healer glance at the three small Potter children. "It might be best if the children wait until tomorrow, his condition is still…"

"Oh, let them in," a second healer said, appearing alongside the first. "He's already asked for them."

After another moment, the first healer nodded, perhaps a little begrudgingly, and stepped aside for Ginny to enter the room. James and Albus scrambled to their feet and fallowed their mother while Teddy shook Lily awake.

"Hey Lily-bud," he murmured, his voice sounding rougher than usual. "Wake up. Your Daddy's going to be okay. He wants to see us."

Lily smiled groggily at him. "Good," she mumbled as he scooped her up and carried her into the hospital room.

Harry looked awful. He was whiter than the starched hospital sheets and bandages were wound tightly around his left arm, shoulder, and chest. His right arm was in a sling and there were jagged gashes along the side of his face. His eyes were closed when they came in and for a moment Teddy though the worst. But as soon as Ginny spoke, an arm around each of her sons who were clinging to her robes looking fearfully at their father, his eyes fluttered open.

The healers didn't let them stay long. Ginny bent down and brushed her lips lightly against Harry's forehead before ushering her children from the room.

Teddy didn't sleep well that night. Seeing Harry had scared him as much as the news he'd been hurt had, but in a different way. Teddy had never seen his godfather like that. He'd seen him injured before, but never this badly. As childish as it felt to admit it, Teddy had always imagined Harry to be something close to invincible. He was The-Boy-Who-Lived-Twice, the savior of the Wizarding World, and above all, Teddy's Godfather. He was not supposed to be able to get that close to dying.

But he's human, just like everybody else, a voice in Teddy's head told him again and again. There's a good chance he might not come back one of these days. The thought seemed to press down upon him in the darkness, suffocating him until he pushed it away and tried vainly not to think.

So it was with trepidation and dark circles under his eyes that Teddy crossed the threshold to Harry's hospital room the next morning. Harry looked far better than he had the night before. He was still heavily bandaged and whiter than white, but he was sitting up, smiling wanly at his children who were hopping around excitedly next to him.

Teddy kept his distance, staying outside of the little ones' happy bubble. They were too happy that everything was okay again to notice how ashen and weary Harry seemed or to take notice of all the signs of serious injury. To them, Harry was once again an invincible superhero.

When the healer returned to usher them out of the room so Harry could rest, Teddy was almost relieved to go.

"Hang on a second, Teddy," Harry said as he reached the door.

Wishing he could just get out of this room, Teddy turned to face his godfather in the now-empty room.

"What's up?" Harry asked, his green eyes scrutinizing Teddy in the familiar way that made him feel like Harry was seeing straight through him.

"What d'you mean?" Teddy said evasively.

"You hardly said two words since you got here, you won't look me in the eye, and you won't get within four feet of me. What's the matter?"

Teddy stayed silent, biting his lip and staring at his shoes.

"Teddy?"

"What's the matter?" he burst out suddenly, jerking his head up to meat Harry's gaze. "You almost died!"

"I didn't though," Harry said calmly, but Teddy barely heard him.

"You almost died and never came back! Did you ever think what that would do to _us_? Lily would be crushed and James and Albus would have to grow up before they even got to school! Ron wouldn't be able to live with the guilt! And Ginny, you might as well be taking her with you!" with every pronouncement, he took as step nearer so that he was now standing right next to Harry's bed, taking great heaving breaths. "We've already lost enough! Don't you understand? We need you! _I_ need you."

His voice broke. Suddenly, he dropped to his knees and buried his face in the bed sheets. The admission made him feel shamefully childish.

Teddy felt a hand on the back of his head. "I've thought about it," Harry said softly. "I've thought about it a lot" – he gave a hallow laugh – "more than you could ever know. I know there's a possibility I won't make it back every time I go out into the field."

This was not what Teddy wanted to hear, but Harry went on anyway.

"Every time we go into the office, there's no guarantee we're coming back. But I have," he added almost fiercely. "I've lived through a lot of battles, and I've come back every time. Don't you think that means something? I know what I'm getting into Teddy, we all do. But I've got something worth fighting hell for," his fingers tightened.

Teddy looked up at him miserably, already feeling bad about the things he'd said. "But why do _you _have to go fight? Haven't you already done enough for the Wizarding World?" he asked a little bitterly. Why did everybody who loved him have to go fight in deadly battles?

"You know why," Harry said gently. "You said so yourself. We've lost too much already. I'm not letting anything like the war happen again. You and I both know what it's like to lose the people you love. If I can stop someone else from having to suffer like that, I'm going to.

"This is why we fought that war, Teddy! So families wouldn't be ripped apart. So innocent people could be safe. In might seem easier to sit back and let someone else do the hard things, but somewhere along the line someone's got to stand up and fight for the people who can't fight for themselves. If we don't, that war won't mean anything! The same thing will keep happening again and again and everything we've lost will count for nothing. I think that's a worthy cause. Can you understand that?"

There was a steely glint in Harry's eyes. Despite his injuries, he seemed to radiate a kind of energy Teddy had never seen in him before.

Swallowing hard, Teddy nodded. When he left the hospital room a half an hour later, he had decided something. He was going to be an Auror, like his mother and his godfather. He was going to fight for everything Harry had just said.

**A/N: So? How did I do? I'm not so sure about the ending. It can be revised if you think that's necessary. Right, so this chapter actually has a lot of back story. There's a lot of information that I couldn't fit in without ruining the flow of the story. If you're interested, here's what's going on beyond the chapter, because I think it deserves a place somewhere. Harry and Ron got a call to go investigate an old abandon house that is suspected of being an old Death Eater haunt. Muggles in the area have been going missing for a while and a Wizard who lived close to it suspected the old house and went in to check it out. When he didn't come back out, his wife informed the ministry. The minute they set foot inside the place, Harry and Ron knew it was full of dark magic. There were booby traps everywhere. While they were searching the house, Harry happened to find the most recent muggle victim, a teenage boy. The kid was still alive, but he was caught in one of the traps. There wasn't a way to get him out without setting off even more. If they didn't get him out, Harry knew the kid would die, and since back-up wouldn't have made a difference, he pulled him out himself. Harry took the brunt of the curses that went off when he pulled the boy out, blasting curses that collapsed part of the house and a pretty nasty form of Sectum Sempra. Ron, who wasn't near him when it happened, managed to pull him and the kid out and get them to St. Mongo's but he mangled his arm pretty badly in the process. That's why Teddy said he'd feel guilty, if Harry died 'cause he was with him and everything. That's also why he and Hermione weren't in this chapter. Ron was angrily demanding to know if his friend was going to be okay in another hospital room until they finally gave him some sleeping potion for the pain and anxiety, and Hermione was running back and forth form Harry' room to Ron's trying to figure out what was going on. So they were both really scared, too. They just weren't in the right place. Wow, that explanation could almost be its own chapter! If you've made it all the way down here, you're awesome! Don't forget to let me know what you think! Reviews rock my world and keep me going! **


	7. Sick

**What's this? Another update? So soon? I know, it's a surprise to me, too. But inspiration struck I wrote it out, debated wheter it was good enough to publish, and must have decided it was, because here it is! You'll have to tell me if I'm right (or if I'm wrong, I'm okay with that too)**

**Right, so since I'm posting out of order by now anyway, I might as well have some fun with it, right? This one goes back to when Teddy's a little kid again. Sorry if that's a shock to the mindset. The next will most likely be back in the teenage years. And now, I present to you, the next chapter!**

**Oh yeah, I don't own any of this stuff, incase my lack of disclaimers was confusing anyone. IT'S NOT MINE! I JUST BORROWED IT!**

Teddy was sick.

He hated being sick more than anything. Every part of him felt icky; his head felt heavy and achy, his throat felt like someone had struck a match down it, his chest ached from coughing, and his nose was rubbed raw. His whole body was tired, but he was too bored to sleep. That was the worst part of being sick; his Gran wouldn't let him leave his bed and forced cups of nastily bitter tea down his throat. There was nothing for him to do but stare up at the ceiling and try to get rid of the awful taste the tea left in his mouth.

This was a particularly bad time to be sick, too. Teddy was supposed to be going to a Quidditch game today. Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione and all of Ron and Ginny's brothers were going to see the Chudley Cannons play Puddlemere United. Even Uncle Charlie was supposed to come in from Romania. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, George, and Angelina all were friends with Puddlemere United's Keeper, Oliver Wood, too, and he had got them top tickets and promised to introduce them all to the teams and everything! Teddy had been so excited to go, but then he had to get sick and his Gran wouldn't let him get out of bed.

He sighed heavily, scowling at the Chudley Cannon posters Ron had given him for his birthday, and the breath scorched his raw throat.

Yes, he hated being sick quite a lot.

Down in the kitchen, Andromeda was making soup and bread to bring up to her grandson when a pillar of green flames suddenly erupted in the fireplace and Harry stumbled out of it. Andromeda smiled at him as he righted himself and brushed the soot form his jacket.

"I suppose you're here to check in on him before the match?" she asked.

"Yeah, if he's up for visitors," Harry answered.

"He'll be thrilled to see you," Andromeda told him smiling fondly at him. She and Harry had gotten to know each other quite a bit in the last five years of raising Teddy. "He's upstairs, supposed to be sleeping, but I've got a feeling you won't be waking him up."

Harry nodded, smiled his thanks, and headed for the stairs. Sure enough, when he knocked on Teddy's door and pushed it open it was to find his godson hanging over the end of his bed fishing for something in his toy box.

The moment the door opened, Teddy threw himself backward and pulled the covers up to his chin. He relaxed when he saw it was Harry and a grin spread across his unusually-pale face.

"Hey buddy," Harry said coming in and ruffling Teddy's hair. "Your Gran says you aren't feeling so great today."

The little boy sneezed in response and his hair changed from turquoise to violet. Harry bit back a smile because Teddy looked simply miserable.

"Gran won't let me go to the match today," Teddy said morosely. He sneezed again and his hair turned canary yellow.

"We were sorry to hear you were sick," Harry told him, sitting down on the edge of his bed. "Ron was really disappointed. He was hoping to get another Cannons fan." Harry smiled amusedly at his friend's relentless efforts to turn his godson into Cannons nut, too. "Don't worry," he added, seeing Teddy's downcast face. "They'll be other games and Oliver'll get us some more good tickets."

"I guess you gotta go pretty soon to get to the match on time," Teddy mumbled. He began to cough, his whole body shaking with the effort.

Harry hesitated. He felt awful leaving the poor kid to go to a Quidditch game when he was feeling so rotten already.

"You know what? There'll be loads of other Quidditch matches. Why don't I stay here with you instead?"

Teddy's whole face lit up. "Really?"

"Really," Harry told him sincerely.

"The whole afternoon?"

"If you want."

"What'll we do? Gran won't let me out of bed."

Harry thought for a minute, then he grinned. "How about I tell you a story?"

"Okay," Teddy said skeptically. Ron and Uncle George were usually the best at making up stories, but seeing as Harry was skipping Quidditch to stay with him, he thought it best not to point that out.

Harry laughed a little at Teddy's less-than-enthusiastic acceptance of this idea. "You'll like this story, I promise. How about we go down and sit by the fire instead? It'll be warmer down there."

"Gran told me not to get out of the covers," Teddy told Harry worriedly.

"I'll keep you wrapped up in a blanket. I think she'll allow that."

So Harry grabbed the quilt draped over the end of Teddy's bed, bundled him up in it and carried him down to the living room where a roaring fire drove all the chill out of the room.

"Alright," Harry said, sinking into the couch and situating Teddy on his lap. "The tricky part is to know where to begin."

"Once upon a time," Teddy supplied patiently.

"Of course, Once upon a time," Harry agreed. "Let's see. Once upon a time there was a boy who got turned into a wolf."

"How come?" Teddy asked.

"Well, you see there was a horrible man who was angry with the boy's father, so he turned the boy into a wolf as a way to get back at him."

"That's really mean."

"Yes it is. Now, when the boy got turned into a wolf, he still thought like a boy at first. But very slowly, his mind would begin to turn wolfish too. People were afraid he'd go wild and hurt them, so they sent him away where there were no people for him to hurt."

"But he'd be awfully lonely," Teddy said, feeling sad for the wolf.

"Yes, but the boy was glad to go. He was afraid of what would happen when the wolf took over. He didn't want to hurt anybody, you see. So he went away to an old house that nobody lived in anymore and he would be safely far away from everybody."

"He must have been very brave to go by himself so he wouldn't hurt anybody," Teddy mumbled, resting his head on Harry's shoulder.

"He was," Harry said softly. "Anyway, so the boy, er, the wolf, stayed in the old house. But, see, he had three friends who got quite worried when they couldn't find him. They were a bit mischievous, so it didn't take them along to figure out what had happened and go after their friend."

"But the wolf could hurt them," Teddy said anxiously. "The boy wouldn't want to hurt his friends."

"No, he didn't. He hid from them at first. The wolf had nearly taken over by the time they found him in the old house. He whimpered and begged as best as a wolf could for them to leave before he hurt them, and in the end they did. But they didn't go far. They tried to think of a way they could help their friend. If he couldn't be near people, then they would just have to turn into animals, too.

"This was very advanced magic, though, and it took quite a bit of work, but eventually they managed it. One of them turned into a big black dog. Another one turned into a little rat. And the third one turned into a great stag."

"Cool," Teddy breathed. Harry smiled, albeit a little sadly.

"Anyway, so as animals, they could keep their friend company without the wolf trying to hurt them. And with his friends around, the boy managed to get control of his mind back from the wolf. The four of them could even leave the house and explore. They made all kinds of discoveries and had a good time running around together. But what's most important is that the boy wasn't alone anymore. He had his friends with him and so it didn't matter so much that he got turned into a wolf."

"That was very brave of the boy's friends, too," Teddy said. "They turned into animals for him. They must have been very good friends."

"Oh they were," Harry assured him. "They were."

"Is that the end of the story?" Teddy asked.

"Oh, yeah, that's the end."

"Then you've got to end it with 'And they all lived happily ever after'. That's how stories are supposed to end."

"And they all lived happily ever after," Harry repeated obediently, although as he said it he thought of how the Marauders' story really ended, and felt a pang of sadness.

Someday when Teddy was older and understood more, Harry would tell him the real story, but for now it could end happily ever after.

Teddy fell asleep not long after that. When he woke up, Harry was still there, holding him tightly and staring into the fire. That story became one of Teddy's favorites. He especially liked how all the boy's friends stayed with him and helped him even though he was dangerous. He still would have liked to go to the Quidditch match, but spending the day with Harry and listening to that story was a good second.

Harry ended up with the worst cold he'd ever had afterword, but it was worth it.

**A/N: So what do you think? I know my telling of the marauders story isn't exactly spectacular, but remember Harry was the one telling it, so I was trying to keep in his voice, not the epic fairy tail voice. I also know it's not exactly how it all went down, but I was trying to keep it like a little kid's story. Alright, well thank you all for reading and especial those who review! You all get a free pass to awesomeness if you review! :D **


	8. Girls

**A/N: I don't know where these are coming from, they just sort of pop into my brain. I guess I thought you deserved a bit of fluff since the other stuff I'm working on is kind of angsty. I liked this idea too much to leave it out. I wanted to do something when Teddy was a little older, and this just sort of fit. Well, I hope you like it and my skipping around doesn't bug you too much. I'll probably put it in order when I'm all done! **

**BTW, these characters? Nope, not mine. **

"Hey Harry? How'd you and Ginny hook up?"

Harry looked over the top of his paper at his godson in amusement. Despite being seventeen, graduated from Hogwarts, and a legal adult, Teddy was sitting cross-legged at Harry's feet and playing absent-mindedly with James's Fanged Frisbee, looking exactly like he had when he was six years old.

"How many times have you heard this story by now Ted?" Harry asked bemusedly.

Teddy shrugged. "It's always Ginny that tells it though, and she always makes it sound so _romantic,_" he made a disgusted face at the word. "I was just wondering what your side of things was."

Harry hid his grin behind his paper. "Sorry, Teddy, but it's not really much different."

"Oh come _on_!" Teddy burst out in exasperation. "You're not seriously going to tell me you just decided one day that it might be fun to walk up and snog Ginny Weasley without so much as 'Hi, how's it going?' in front of the entire common room _and _ her older brother who just _happened _to be your best friend!"

Harry actually started to laugh. If the kid only knew…

Teddy watched his godfather's amusement unimpressed.

"Well, that's not exactly what happened," Harry managed after a minute or two.

"So? What was it like on your end?" Teddy prompted. "I mean, were you, like, sitting on this sort of thing since you met her or what?"

"Ginny might have been, judging by the number of things she knocked over the first time I stayed at the burrow," Harry laughed. "I don't think I saw her once that summer when she wasn't blushing furiously."

"But for you?"

"Did I know I was going to marry her the moment I saw her? Course not, I was only eleven!"

"So how did James, Al, and Lily get to be born then?"

"Those are stories you're not ready to hear yet," Harry grinned.

"Ew! No! You know what I mena!"

"Alright, alright. You want to know how I ended up kissing her in front of the entire house," Harry said more seriously. "Well, I didn't really think of her as more than just Ron's little sister till about sixth year. Then I started to get annoyed when she'd go off to hang out with her boyfriend instead of me and I started to think about her more than I ever used to. Just little stuff like that. I didn't really know I really liked her until Ron and I walked in on her making out with Dean Thomas –"

"Whoa, like Dean Thomas in the Auror department, the one who used to sneak me chocolate frogs out of Ron's stash?" Teddy interrupted, thrown by this news.

"Yup, that's the one," Harry laughed. "Well, I knew I really liked Ginny when I wanted to rip dean limb from limb for kissing her. Only problem was he was already her boyfriend so there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it just them. Besides, her brother was my best mate and he also wanted to rip Dean limb from limb for snogging her, so that was a bit off-putting."

"Jeez, it's a small miracle you two ever ended up married," Teddy muttered.

"It actually really is," Harry agreed. "I only kissed her because I wasn't thinking at all. I was Quidditch captain, but I got detention for the last game of the season so I didn't know if we won or lost till I came in half-way through the party. Ginny came running up to me and hugged me, and I just sort of…kissed her. No thought at all. I could've gotten slapped pretty hard by a lot of people if she hadn't kissed me back."

"So…you got your wife by not thinking?" Teddy said slowly.

"Pretty much," Harry grinned. "If you think about it, you won't do anything."

Teddy sat mulling this over. Don't think, take a risk, just do it, don't think… he wondered if that would work for him. Next time she was around, he'd try it.

**A/N: Yes, once again I must ask you annoyingly to give your opinion on my work. Sorry, but I REALLY want to know what you think. Am I on the right track? Is there anything you really hate and want me to change? Anything you want me to add? Ideas? PLEASE LET ME KNOW! **


	9. Not Fair

**A/N: Hi! I didn't think I'd get this out this week end. I've had SO much homework! Plus I spent the day watching a play and doing all the things that go along with it. BTW Wicked is amazing! **

**But anyway, so here we are about the place I left off when I started skipping around. Teddy's twelve, James is five any other ages can be figured out from there I think.**

**Oh, and to anyone who's reading The Discovery, SO SORRY we didn't post this weekend! I promise we'll have it up next weekend if not sooner! So much homework and it wasn't cooperating! D: **

**Thanks to all who review this story, you're amazing! Sorry for the super SUPER long a/ns you have the patience of a saint if you read them all! :D Also, don't own any of it. It's all JK's stuff, I'm just borrowing it. **

"It's not fair!" James moaned, flinging himself on the couch beside Teddy with so much force that he nearly bounced right back off.

Teddy ignored him. Normally he would have asked James what was so unfair, but he wasn't in the mood just then.

"Teddy?" James said impatiently, shaking Teddy's arm to get his attention. "Don't you want to know what's not fair?"

Teddy sighed heavily and pushed the leather-bound book he'd been looking at aside. "What's not fair?" he asked through gritted teeth. He could think of a lot of things that weren't fair right now, but he didn't think James's answer would fit the category.

"Mummy _grounded _me!" he exploded. Teddy had never heard of five-year-olds getting grounded before James, but normal timeouts just didn't seem to faze him anymore. "All because I replaced Lily's stuffed rabbits with those demon-rabbits-out-of-a-hat things from Fred and George's shop!" (the shop was never just Georg's shop or George and Lee's or George and Angelina's, it was always Fred and George's)

"It's not _fair!_ They didn't even bite her! Mummy's just picking on me! She always yells at me!" James went on, working up his anger. Teddy would ordinarily have pointed out that James always did things to make her mad, but he didn't think he could open his mouth without screaming at the kid that he didn't have anything to complain about, so he didn't say anything.

"Al and Lily never get in trouble! She won't even let me go with Daddy and Uncle Ron to Di-gon ally! It's not fair! She's just being mean! I hate her! – "

SMACK!

Teddy didn't even remember doing it. In the half-second of silence in which the sound reverberated around the room he stared from the pink splotch on James's shocked face to his own stinging hand, trying to comprehend how that had happened.

Then James let out a wail, tears streaming down his scrunched-up face.

"Sh! Sh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Teddy said frantically, trying to calm him down, but James smacked his hands away and thrashed out of his reach.

There was a clattering in the hall and a moment later Harry and Ginny were in the doorway, wands raised, searching the room. James flew across the room and launched himself into his mother's arms, howling "Teddy hit me!" over and over again.

Harry and Ginny both turned to look at him in surprise. Teddy didn't go around hitting people, least of all their children.

"I'm sure he didn't mean to," Ginny said calmly.

"Yes he did!" James bawled.

"Sh, it's okay," Ginny murmured rubbing his back soothingly. Teddy turned away, biting his lip and fighting the stupid lump that was rising in his throat._ You're not a little kid anymore, not worth crying over. _

"Grammy sent some cookies home yesterday, why don't we go into the kitchen and have some," Teddy heard Ginny suggest and a moment later James's noises sobs receded down the hall.

Teddy flopped back against the couch, eyes closed and feeling miserable. The kid practically idolized him and he went and slapped him in the face. Add that to everything else and today was going perfectly.

"What happened?" Harry asked, lurching away from the door frame and coming to sit across from Teddy on the footstool.

"I slapped him," Teddy replied dully.

"Why?" Harry asked just as calmly as before.

"Aren't you his dad? Shouldn't you be threatening to skin me alive for hitting your kid?"

"Why'd you hit him?"

"He was whining about being punished for traumatizing his sister with rabbits and how unfair it all was and then he said he hated Ginny!" Teddy tried to sound like he thought James had deserved it, but his voice cracked. Stupid puberty.

"Teddy – I don't think I have to lecture you about violence and not hitting people who annoy you–"

"I'm sorry, okay?" Teddy interrupted. "I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened, I just sort of lost it or something! Now the kid probably hates me!"

"I think it's physically impossible for James to hate you," Harry reassured him, fighting a smile. Then he added more seriously "So what's going on then? What made you fly off the handle like that?"

Teddy stared moodily at his knees. "You wouldn't get it," he mumbled.

"Oh really?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows and leaning forward to grab the book Teddy had set aside. It was a photo album Ginny had put together years ago. Harry flipped to the page Teddy had been looking at; the picture of a shabby, tired-looking man with his arms around a young woman with bubblegum pink hair.

"You don't think I'd get that?" Harry asked, showing Teddy the picture.

The boy kept his eyes fixed carefully on his knees. 'You wouldn't get it'. Well, that had been a stupid thing to say. It was easy to forget who he was talking to sometimes; that his godfather got a lot more than other people.

"It's not fair!" Teddy burst out bitterly, reminding himself ironically of James. "I mean, he should count himself lucky that he's got a mum around to punish him at all. He should be thanking Merlin for it every day, but instead he says he hates her! Doesn't – doesn't he know I'd give anything to get grounded by _my _mum for pulling a prank on _my _sister? But I can't. Not ever!"

He jumped to his feet suddenly and crossed over to the fire, hands thrust in his pockets. Harry watched him silently.

"I mean," Teddy went on in a low voice. "What'd I do wrong? What's the difference between him and me? How come it's me that's got no family? Don't say I'm part of your family!" Teddy added heatedly as Harry opened his mouth. "Because you know it's not the same thing."

Harry gazed sadly at his godson's hunched profile for a moment. This was something he could only understand a little. Of course he knew what Teddy meant. As much as he loved the Weasleys and considered them his family (well, now they really were) there was always something there in the back of his mind reminding him that they weren't, not _really_. He had real parents, but they were gone.

The difference was that he had always been eager to find a real family. He had always secretly loved it when Mrs. Weasley would treat him like one of her own children or Ron's brothers would tease him like they did Ron. He'd never corrected those impressions, but welcomed them gladly.

With a heavy sigh, he stood up and joined Teddy beside the fire. "I used to wonder the same thing you know." He said quietly. "Why Dudley, who was a real brat when we were kids, always throwing tantrums and screaming and bullying people, got to have parents who adored him and I didn't. Truth is, there's not a reason. You didn't do anything wrong, it's not a punishment. It just happens and it's not fair."

Teddy kept staring into the fire, wishing there was a real answer for why it had to be them, but of course there never was.

"You know," Harry continued, putting a tentative hand on Teddy's shoulder. "We might not be your _real_ family, but we love you like we are. All of us. And that's what really matters. I know sometimes it's not enough, but we try really hard for it to be most of the time."

"I know," Teddy mumbled. He took a deep breath and went on in a stronger voice, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that bit about not having a real family. Most of the time I don't think that. Most of the time I feel just like part of the family. And I know it's no good crying about how unfair it is. It's not James's fault, he's just a little kid. But – but sometimes I just can't stand it."

He added the last part in such a low voice that Harry barley heard it over the crackling of the fire. "You're a kid, no one expects you to be able to stand it all the time," Harry smiled. "Just try not to hit children when you go off."

"S'pose I should go apologize for that, huh?" Teddy mumbled sheepishly.

"It'd be a good idea," Harry agreed.

Halfway across the room, Teddy turned around. "Does it get easier?" he asked. "I mean, it's been twelve years and it just seems to keep getting harder."

Harry thought about it for a moment. "I don't know if it gets easier, but you stop exploding at people after a while. You get used to it I suppose."

Teddy nodded and headed for the kitchen again. At the door he turned around one more time. "Harry? – Thanks."

"Anytime."

**A/N: Okay, so originally I intended to have Teddy's apology to James in this, but it just seemed to end better here. If you're interested (cause it might help things in some later chapters) I'll add how it basically went down here. Mostly I wanted this in because Teddy seems to not get along well with James in my stories, I mean with the whole replacement thing, but that's not how I want it to be at all. Teddy loves James – and Al and Lily – like his own little brother (or sister) and usually they get along quite well, James idolizes him. **

**Okay, well here's basically how the apology would go:**

**Teddy sits down at the table next to James, who promptly turns away from him, munching on his cookie. **

"**Hey Jamie" (a name only used when trying to comfort James) Teddy says in a quiet voice. James ignores him. "I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to hit you –"**

"**Yes you did!"**

"**I mean I don't know what happened. I was in a bad mood and what you said about your mum just made me mad and I sort of snapped. I shouldn't have. I feel really horrible about it."**

"**I didn't mean it, you know," James says in a hurt voice, turning to look at Teddy with big, teary eyes. "I didn't mean that I hate her. I was mad. I already told her I didn't mean it. I love her, I really do."**

"**I know," Teddy tells him, smiling a little. **

"**So why'd you get mad at me then?" **

" '**cause I was jealous probably."**

"_**You**_** were jealous of **_**me**_**?"**

"**Sure. I don't have a mum at all. Not to punish me or give me cookies when I'm sad."**

"**Oh." **

"**Will you forgive me for hitting you? I really am sorry and I promise I won't ever do it again."**

**James ponders this for a few minutes, then grins at Teddy, cookie crumbs all over his face. "Okay, if you promise."**

"**I do." **

"**Okay, can we play Quidditch later?"**

"**James, it's December! It's below zero out!" **

"**We can find a way!"**

**A/N: (Resumed) okay so that's what I was thinking. What do you think? Let me know how I did. Anything I could change? Improve on? Anything You liked and want to see more of? Please tell me!**


	10. Family Ties

**A/N: Yes! I am actually updating! Sorry if you guys thought I just like decided to stop writing this or was seriously incapacitated or something. Lots of homework (again) plus family stuff last weekend and I was trying to figure out how this would work.**

**Anyway, a few notes about this chapter: First of all, this is for iluvnacho because they wanted a dinner scene and was like, that sounds like a great idea! It kind of turned out different than I thought it would. I wrote it all in one sitting while I was supposed to be doing my English homework (Which now makes me sick to think about so this better be worth it :D) The reason it took me so long to post is because I didn't know how to quite work out everything and kept getting jumbled. I hope I did okay though, but… well, you'll have to tell me how I did. **

**Oh yeah, [slips into monotone robot voice] none of this belongs to me, I'm not trying to steal, please don't sue me. **

The Burrow looked like Christmas had exploded all over it. Holly and mistletoe and glowing Christmas baubles hung from every available position. Garland wrapped its way along not only the zigzagging staircase, but around the doors and windows and over the mantelpiece. Homemade paper chains looped and swooped across the ceiling and down the walls, and clumsy crayon drawings of what was supposed to be Santa Clause or snowmen or Christmas trees plastered the cabinets. In the living room, the mantle was dripping with stockings – fifteen, each with a name stitched tenderly into the dark red material, and in the corner stood an enormous Christmas tree laden with home-made ornaments and topped with a gnome-angel wearing a tutu and gold wings (an inside joke only Harry, Ron, and George understood).

Darkness had fallen completely and a snowstorm was howling outside, but inside it was warm and cozy and the noise and laughter drowned out the storm. The air was thick with the delicious scent of Christmas dinner and everyone had crammed themselves around the scrubbed wooden table, which was so crowded it was hard to move without jabbing somebody with your elbow.

Teddy found himself wedged between Lily and Uncle George, hardly able to move at all. He didn't mind in the slightest, though. Teddy always loved the Burrow best when it was this crowded. It was bursting with warmth and chaos, and it was the easiest time to fall in with the others and feel like a real part of the family.

This was an old topic for him; fitting in. When he'd been younger, it had been harder, but he'd grown out of that. Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Molly, and probably every other adult at the table had gone to great pains to make sure he knew he was included. The stocking with his name stitched across it in gold thread was just one of the proofs of this.

But tonight the old ideas about family tugged at his thoughts more than they had for a while. It was easy to push them away, to joke with Lily who kept up a nonstop stream of six-year-old chatter at his elbow, to laugh so hard he nearly cried at Uncle George's and Uncle Charlie's stories, to exchange glances with Victoire across the table every now and then like they'd been doing during family dinners since they were too little to remember.

But at the back of his mind, those thoughts kept nagging and he found himself subconsciously watching them all, the big, sprawling family he'd grown up in and yet wasn't technically a part of. George teased all of his brothers relentlessly, but none of them seemed to mind. Dominique, Lucy, and Roxanne giggled together at the end of the table in the secret and baffling language girls had. Louis listened Charlie's dragon stories and hung onto every word with a sort of reverence. Hugo, getting full and sleepy, crawled up onto his grandmother's lap. Molly got into an argument with James and Fred who seemed to live to annoy her. Rose and Albus, practically inseparable if they were in a mile of each other, were talking quite earnestly (for eight-year-olds) to Ginny about Luna's latest discovery. Victoire was telling Harry and Hermione all about school, her blue eyes sparkling and her long strawberry blonde hair swishing as she talked. His eyes seemed to keep coming back to her end of the table.

When everybody was so full they could barely move, they started breaking off into group. The kids scampered up the stairs to keep on doing whatever they'd been up to before dinner while Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Audrey, and Fleur helped Mrs. Weasley clear the table and the others moved into the living room so the kitchen wouldn't be so crowded.

Teddy slipped out of the room and settled on the bottom of the stairs where he could see what was going on in the Kitchen and the living room as well as hear what was happening upstairs if he tried hard enough.

Harry noticed him go. There was something up with him today and Harry thought he had an idea of what it was, but he didn't really want to get in the middle of it, so he kept his distance.

"You go on Molly, I can finish up," Harry told Mrs. Weasley as Ginny, Fleur, Hermione, and Audrey headed into the living room to join everyone else.

Mrs. Weasly smiled at him and patted his cheek. "Thank you, dear, that's very sweet of you," she said before bustling off to tune the wireless to Celestina Warbeck's Christmas broadcast, which no one had turned on yet for some reason.

Teddy watched Harry wave his wand and the pile of plates next to the sink plunged into the soapy water and started scrubbing themselves. Then, on impulse really because he didn't know what else to do, he jumped up and cautiously entered the nearly-empty kitchen.

"Hey Harry."

"Hey, Ted. What's up?" Harry asked shooting a grin at him over his shoulder. "Lily talk your ear off?"

"Nah, I'm used to it. Last weekend was worse; that was right after Al exploded James's cardboard city with accidental magic. I think I heard that story about fifty times in an hour."

"Yeah, she thought that was pretty impressive. So did James after he got over the shock of it," Harry laughed.

"Listen," Teddy said, suddenly a little nervous; it was usually Harry who instigated conversations like this. "Has my Grandma told you what she's doing tomorrow?"

Harry sighed and whipped his hands on a dishtowel before sitting down in an empty chair at the table looking resigned. Teddy's resolve faltered. Maybe he shouldn't ask. He knew it was difficult territory.

"Yeah, she told me. Do you think you're going with her?" Harry asked.

Teddy hesitated. "I dunno. I've heard a lot of stories… but at the same time… Gran says I don't have to go if I don't want to, which isn't a lot of help. What do you think?"

Harry studied him closely and Teddy knew he was trying to read how he really felt.

"About what you're grandma's doing… I think it's a good thing. She doesn't have much family left after all," Harry said quietly. "As to if you should go or not, that's really up to you."\

Teddy sighed dramatically. "You're as useful as she is!"

Harry smiled. "Alright, I'll tell you something. I've known the Malfoys since I was eleven and I can tell you they're… not the best people there ever was, but they're not the worst either. You know Draco didn't exactly get along with me, Ron, and Hermione, and Narcissa and I haven't had the most pleasant encounters – " he stopped for a second as though swept up in a wave of bad memories. Teddy was used to this. It happened to all the adults, anyone who'd been in the war.

Harry took a breath and went on. "But a lot of that stuff… well, what you have to understand, when you got involved with Voldemort, you couldn't get out, even if you wanted to. Anyway, I owe Narcissa. She helped me, even if it wasn't for me, and I'm not going to forget that.

"It's taken a long time for your grandma and her sister to get to where they are now and if she wants to be back in your lives, even just a little… well it's up to you if you want that or not. Just remember that she's still family. That doesn't mean you have to like her… but it's something to think about."

"Well, that clears that up!" Teddy said brightly. "Thanks for the wonderfully coherent and useful advice. I know exactly what I'm going to do now."

"Teddy, this isn't something I can tell you want to do on!" Harry said exasperatedly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Comes with the whole growing up thing. I've got to make up my own mind. Maybe I'll go talk to Ron."

Harry rolled his eyes at his godson. "I don't think you need to talk to him to know what he'll tell you."

Teddy couldn't sleep. It was three in the morning, the adults had already stockpiled the Christmas presents under the tree for the morning, and Teddy still didn't know what he was going to do. Quietly as he could, he crept out of bed and stepped carefully around James, Albus and Hugo, who were all sprawled on the floor in a tangle of blankets and pillows despite the fact that there was an open bunk bed next to them (they'd been determined to wait up until they heard Santa Clause and then sneak down and see him, but they'd fallen asleep by ten o'clock with their game of Gobstones still lying out before them).

Teddy sat on the hearth rug, staring into the fire and trying to make a decision. Christmas dinner came back to him. He'd noticed a long time ago, and then again tonight, that there was something indefinable that connected families. There was something, good or bad, that seemed to bind them together no matter what. This indefinable something was probably why, even after such a long time, his grandmother and her sister were meeting for lunch tomorrow, trying to salvage something. Did he want to be a part of that? He didn't know, but as he pushed himself off the floor and headed sleepily for bed, he thought he knew what he had to do.

-  
The next morning Teddy found Harry reading the paper in the living room while the younger kids went crazy with their presents, slowly turning the house into utter chaos.

"You don't always have to like your family, but you should give them the benefit of the doubt," Teddy said loudly enough so only Harry could hear him. "That's what you wanted to tell me last night, isn't it?"

Harry looked up at him, smiling slightly. "Yeah, I suppose it is."

" Well why couldn't you have just said it?" Teddy huffed. "It'd saved me a lot of time and sleepless night."

Harry laughed a little, remembering all the times he'd thought that. "It was just one of those things I figured you had to work out for yourself. I can't give you _all _the answers. It wouldn't be fair."

Teddy made a face. "You just didn't want to get in the middle of it."

Harry laughed a little more at that. "No, I really didn't."

"Right, well, now that I've overcome a great internal struggle under your great wisdom, I've got some place to be. Save me some Christmas cake and don't let James kill anyone with that sling-shot thing. You guys must have been gone temporarily insane to buy that for him."

**A/N: Maybe that ending was a bit abrupt. I don't know, tell me what you think about this pretty please with a cherry on top! :D I hope it wasn't too redundant. I tried to go for a different angle than last chapter. I also hope it wasn't confusing since I didn't actually explain the whole Malfoy thing. Not to insult anybody's intelligence and only to make sure I'm not being painfully confusing, this is what was happening: Narcissa wanted to re-connect with her sister but didn't really know how to so it took a long time after the war. Andromeda is going to meet her and Teddy is trying to decide if he wants to after all the stories he's heard about the Malfoys. **

**Right, so ten chapters into this story I realize where I'm going to go with it! Here's the plan: I'm gonna write a chapter for every year of Teddy's childhood, so up until he's seventeen. That should be about eighteen chapters total plus an epilogue and I think I'm going to do another chapter for 17 too because ending it with "Girls" isn't really very powerful. If that's confusing it goes like this: I got chapters for ages 0,2,3,5,7,11 (I'm gonna count train station as 11 even though Teddy's technically 12 because it's the end of his first year) 12,15, 16 (this one in case I didn't mention ages) and 17. Chapters to come (in no particular order) ages, 1, 4, 6, 8,9,10,13, 14, and an epilogue of sorts. I've got some ideas to work with, but I'm still open to suggestions (hint hint :D) so that's what it looks like.**


	11. Trouble

**A/N: Whoa, another chapter so soon? Crazy, eh? Well, I had it in my head and I had to get it out. Besides, I figured you deserve it. Have you seen our reviews? Two away from 100 last I checked. I'm so psyched about that! You guys are all amazing and I love you so much! Now about this chapter: Teddy's 6 in it. I don't think I mention that. I think that's about it though, I really hope you like it because I liked writing it! **

Teddy stood riveted to the spot, eyes (currently violet) wide with shock and horror as he stared at the flames leaping before him. Small at first, they were getting bigger as they rapidly consumed the papers strewn across the desk. Important papers, Harry had told Teddy, that he needed to finish before he left for work.

Teddy rushed over and began blowing at the fire like he blew out the candles on his birthday cakes, but these flames didn't disappear in a puff of multi-colored smoke like the birthday candles from Weasleys' Wizard Weezes did. They just seemed to get bigger. Teddy spun around wildly, panicked, with no idea what to do. He didn't even know what had happened, though he head a shrewd suspicion he had done it. One minute he'd been glaring at the papers, wishing they'd just go away and Harry could play with him instead. No one seemed to have time for him lately. Gran was too tired, all the grown-ups were too busy, and Molly and Victoire were _girls._ And then the papers had caught fire.

Desperate to quell the flames, Teddy swatted at them like flies and jumped back with a sob of pain.

"Stop it!" he cried angrily at the fire now licking the picture frames on the edge of the desk. "Stop it! Go out!" He sucked his burnt fingers and stomped his foot as tears of panic and frustration pricked his eyes.

There was a clap of thunder as Teddy's foot struck the rug and the next thing he knew he was soaking wet. Blinking water out of his eyes, Teddy looked up, confused. It was raining inside Harry's office. Chilly sheets of water poured out of the ceiling, dousing everything. The flames sputtered into steam almost immediately and after a second or two the rain died down too.

But Teddy's relief was doused just as quickly as he stared around him. The office was more than a mess. Everything was soaked; water poured off the curtains and down the walls and furniture in rivulets and everything made of paper seemed to have melted into soggy, ink-run piles. A great black burn mark covered most of Harry's desk like a scar and those very important papers had been reduced to a pile of wet ashes in the middle of it.

A silent horror pooled like lead in Teddy's stomach. He stumbled backwards, instinctively distancing himself from the scene of the crime. He had never done anything like this before. He had wrecked a whole room and loads of important stuff. This was very bad.

"Teddy?" Harry's muffled voice came from the kitchen where he'd been talking to Ron about work through the fire.

Harry. Teddy's stomach twisted painfully around the pooling lead as he imagined what would happen when Harry found him. Teddy had never seen him as angry as he was sure to be when he saw this and the image scared Teddy more than flames had. There was no way Teddy could even pretend he hadn't done it. His soaked clothes and shiny red palms were an instant give-away. He was caught, as his Gran would say, red-handed.

"Teddy? What was that? Are you okay?" Harry's footsteps were making their way down the hall towards the office.

Breathing very fast, fear and dread leaping in his chest, Teddy slipped out of the office and looked around wildly for a hiding place. The closet under the stairs caught his eye and he dove into it, shutting the door silently just before Harry came around the corner.

* * *

Harry heard the muffled thunder even through the fireplace.

"You hear that?" he asked Ron, cutting him off mid-ramble about the former snatchers they were tracking.

"What?" Ron asked confusedly.

"That noise… sounded like thunder," Harry frowned at the blue sky visible through Ron and Hermione's living room window.

"I didn't hear anything," Ron told him. "Must be on your end."

"I've gotta go check on Teddy, I'll floo you in a few minutes, okay?" Harry said, feeling a little apprehensive as he withdrew his head form the fire. He knelt on the kitchen floor for a second as the room spun around him and then clambered to his feet, calling, "Teddy?"

No answer.

The familiar beginnings of panic fluttered in his chest. He pushed them away as he made his way into the hall. Old paranoia, Teddy was probably fine. "Teddy? What was that? Are you okay?"

Still nothing.

Now Harry was starting to get scared. He broke into a run, skidding around the corner and stopping short in front of his open office door.

The scene that met him was ruin. It looked like the place had been flooded. Everything was drenched, even the ceiling was dripping, and a large black burn covered the top of Harry's desk where the records and case reports he'd been working on had sat. Aside from a dim sort of bewilderment, Harry hardly noticed the state of his office. What he did notice was that Teddy was nowhere to be seen in the wrecked room.

"Teddy!" Harry yelled, wheeling form the door and sprinting further down the hall, flinging open more doors as an old terror slowly seeped through him. "Teddy! Where are you! TEDDY!"

He pounded up the stairs, ripping open still more doors, throwing himself down on the floor to pear under beds, throwing things out of closets, all the while shouting Teddy's name.

_This cannot be happening… not now._ The words echoed around his numbing brain, a sort of feeble defiance against the situation. The longer his search went on, the worse the scenarios his imagination showed him became. As he stumbled out the front door after coming up empty in every room inside, he thought wildly of Death Eaters breaking in and snatching Teddy away. _This isn't supposed to be happening anymore!_

* * *

Teddy burrowed deeper into the back of his closet, hiding beneath the piles of fallen cloaks and bags of old clothes and blankets. He pressed his tear-soaked face into a soft quilt and listened to the crashes and slamming doors and Harry shouting for him. His hands hurt and he was shivering from the rain and Harry sounded really _really _mad. He had never heard Harry yelling like that.

When Harry had flung open his closet door, he'd lain perfectly still in his cocoon, even turning his hair a dark red to match the quilt. It worked perfectly and a moment later he'd been plunged once more into darkness. There was no way he was coming out. Ever. Well… maybe when Ginny came home he'd sneak out and see her… but only for a second.

* * *

Harry sank to the ground in the middle of the back yard. He'd been around the house three times, looking in every bush, under the porch, in the shed, anywhere Teddy could fit. Nothing.

_What _was he going to do? Ron and Hermione was the first answer that came to him, like a reflex even after all these years. He had just raised his want to send them a patronus when something flashed across his mind; a flicker of turquoise among the blankets in the closet under the stairs. In his haste and panic had he missed something?

Harry was on his feet and pelting full tilt towards the house in a heartbeat. Three seconds later he was skidding to a halt once again in front of the closet door. He was on the point of seizing the doorknob and flinging it open when he heard scuffling and little whimpers from inside. An idea about the ruined office started to put itself together.

More slowly than he'd been planning to, Harry turned the knob and pulled open the door. This time knowing what he was looking for, he spotted the splotch of turquoise in the pile of blankets before it turned quickly to red that blended perfectly with the material.

Harry sagged against the door frame with a strangled moan of relief. Then he crouched down and gently peeled back the blanket from his godson's face.

"Watcher, Teddy," Harry said softly.

Teddy didn't look at him. He just buried his face in the blankets once more. Sighing, Harry crawled over the piles of clothes and blankets to the back of the closet so he could sit next to Teddy.

"What're you doin' in here?" Harry asked.

Teddy didn't answer. Harry didn't seem angry like he'd thought he'd be. He supposed he didn't know yet and Teddy wasn't about to tell him.

Harry tried a different tact. "Didn't you hear me calling for you? I tore half the house apart looking for you."

Teddy sniffled a little. It was harder to be afraid of Harry getting mad when he couldn't see the ruined room.

"You scared me," Harry went on. "When I couldn't find you I was afraid something had happened to you."

This made Teddy feel even worse because it made him feel guilty. He was utterly miserable, wet and cold with burnt hands. He wanted to just start bawling at the top of his lungs and wait for Harry to fix everything. But that, Teddy told himself firmly, was for babies and four-year-olds like Victoire. So instead he crawled up onto Harry's lap and curled up there, hiding his face in Harry's shirt.

Harry hugged him tightly. He wanted to tie Teddy to him, and never let the kid out of is sight after today. He could feel Teddy shaking through his damp clothes.

"Here," Harry pulled out his wand and waved it. A moment later, Teddy's clothes were warm and dry. "Now," Harry said in a more business-like voice. "Shall we talk about what happened to my office?"

Teddy cringed. So he did know. Now came the trouble part.

"I think you know how it got to be the way it is. Can you tell me?"

Teddy hesitated, but suddenly he couldn't stop himself and he burst into the story, the words tumbling out of his mouth in a rush. When he'd finished he buried his head in Harry's arm, waiting for the yelling to start. But Harry didn't start yelling. Instead he started laughing.

Startled, Teddy pulled back so he could look at his godfather incredulously and with a little bit of concern.

"I'm sorry, Teddy," Harry said once he'd stopped laughing. "It's just that, well, your dad was right."

"Right about what?" Teddy asked perplexedly.

"You're a great wizard in the making. You just made my desk burst into flame then conjured a rainstorm to put it out. If that's not impressive magic, I don't know what is."

"You're not mad?" Teddy asked, even more confused than ever, but elation was slowly creeping through him. He'd done magic!

"Of course not," Harry said more seriously. "It was accidental magic, you couldn't control it." Teddy saw a dark look cross his face for a second. "Come on Teddy, let's get out of this cupboard."

"But I wrecked all your stuff! I – I burned your papers!" Teddy exclaimed as Harry clambered unsteadily to his feet with Teddy still in his arms and ducked out of the closet.

"We can fix most of that," Harry reassured him and when Teddy looked skeptical added, "Well, Hermione can anyway. And I think Ron's got a copy of most of those papers. The rest I can re-do," he sighed inwardly at the thought of having to do all that paper work again, but there was no way he was going to be mad about it. He wasn't like the Durlseys about accidental magic, not in a million years.

"It's just stuff anyways," Harry told Teddy, noticing for the first time Teddy's red burnt palms and taking on gently in his hand. "None of that stuff is half as important as you are. I need you to promise me something, alright Teddy? Don't ever hide on me again, okay? No matter what happens, you can tell me. Promise you will?"

"Promise," Teddy vowed at once.

**A/N: Heh? Heh? What d'you think? No super-long author's note here, I thought I'd spare you. p.s. whoever gives me my 100****th**** review gets fabulous prizes! (mostly just my super excited thank you's, but I think those are worth something :D ) **


	12. Past

**A/N: Oh my gosh, I'm SO sorry! I didn't mean to leave this for a month! It's just I had zero inspiration. I knew what I wanted to do, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Ugh! But here it is! I won't tell you what I think of it 'til you've read it, but I would really appreciate it if you'd tell me what **_**you**_** think of it! :D **

**Oh yeah, also, I DISclaim all of the characters and stuff. **

"Come on Teddy, don't be such a baby!" Victoire exclaimed, rolling her big blue eyes in a way that made her look closer to thirteen rather than seven. Teddy_ hated _it when she did that. He was the older one after all. She was supposed to be fallowing him.

"Don't be such a baby!" echoed Dominique, who, upon turning four, had begun to repeat everything her older sister said.

" 'M not being a baby!" Teddy mumbled. "I just don't think we should go poking around where we're not supposed to."

Vicoite rolled her eyes in that irritating way again and crossed her arms. "This was _your _idea in the first place, Teddy."

"It was not!" Teddy protested angrily. "All I said was 'I bet that's where they keep all the neat junk they don't want us to find'."

"Exactly, you can't say something like that and then _not _go and check it out!" Victoire explained patiently, looking at him as if he were a toddler. This made Teddy even madder at her.

"They've got to have a reason for not wanting us up there and if they find us they'll all be mad," he grumbled, and with that, threw himself down on the couch stubbornly.

"When did you start acting like a goody-goody?" Victoire demanded, regarding him with incredulity and scorn. "You never paid attention to the rules before! Uncle Harry said you were a true Marauder's son, but I guess he was wrong."

That one stung. More than a little. And the worst part was Teddy couldn't even come up with a retort. He just sat there glaring at her and trying to swallow the lump in his throat. Victoire must not have really understood exactly what she was saying because that was a much lower blow than the pair of them usually dealt.

They glowered at each other for another moment.

"Fine!" Victoire finally said, tossing her long hair back and flouncing away angrily. "Come on Dom, let's go see what Gran's got stashed away upstairs!" and leading her sister by the hand, Victoire disappeared up the stairs.

"You're gonna get caught!" Teddy called after her. He scowled at the place she'd vanished for another ten seconds before leaping to his feet and fallowing the girls, grumbling under his breath all the while. Girls! What was the point of them anyway? All they did was make life more difficult than it needed to be. Especially Victoire Weasley.

When Teddy finally caught up with them on the top landing, he and Victoire glared at each other for another few moments before her face finally broke into a grin. Why did he have to be infected with her happiness every time she smiled? It made being mad at her very, very hard.

He felt the corners of his mouth twitch. Victoire handed him the rope that pulled down the attic stairs and he felt a reluctant grin spread over his face, his eyes glittered with the familiar mischief. He _did _really want to know what was up there.

"Knew you'd come around," Victoire beamed as he tugged the stairs down from the ceiling without too much difficulty for a nine-year-old.

"Okay, the little kids ought to keep your grandma busy outside for a while, but we should have a guard just in case," Teddy said in a business-like tone that said plainly that he knew what he was doing.

"Dom, you sit at the bottom of the stairs and listen for Grandma," Victoire instructed her little sister.

Dominique instantly began to pout. "No! I wanna go snooping with you and Teddy!"

Victoire sighed and knelt down, looking sternly at her sister. "We've been through this. If you want to hang out with me and Teddy and not the little kids, then you have to do what we tell you and be the guard. It's how you prove yourself, got it?"

Dominique's lower lip began to tremble. "If you don't let me come I'm telling Gran!"

"You wanna play the tattle game?" Victoire asked, raising an eyebrow. "Fine. You tell Gran and I'll tell Mummy you threw that block at Louis yesterday and broke her potions."

Dominique snapped her little mouth shut and plopped down on the bottom step, scowling at the big kids furiously, but with no way to argue further.

Victoire threw a triumphant smirk up at Teddy as she stood up.

"Now, you've got a very important job, Dom," Teddy told her, kneeling down and looking at her earnestly. Her scowl vanished. "If you hear anyone come into the house, you run up these stairs fast as you can and tell us, but don't go shouting, kay?" she nodded. "You'll be an excellent guard! Keep this up and we might just promote you."

Dominique grinned at him and sat straighter, eager to do well at her very important post. Teddy stood and he and Victoire scrambled up the stairs together.

"Nicely played," he muttered to her.

She smiled. "You too."

They reached the top of the stairs and peered into the gloomy attic. The ghoul had been removed long ago and his former home had been scurgified thoroughly and filled with dusty boxes and old, forgotten things.

Victoire moved eagerly into the gloom and began sifting through things, but Teddy hovered on the threshold longer. It wasn't any aversion to breaking rules (Teddy had never had any problem with that) or even a fear of getting caught and yelled at that had held Teddy back, as Victoire seemed to think. No, it was because Teddy knew that more than just old junk was kept up in the dusty time-capsule of attics. People also shoved away memories, things they did not want to be reminded of, but couldn't bear to forget. In his grandmother's attic there were his mother's baby things, his grandfather's old robes and muggle soccer posters, even a faded picture of a flying motorcycle and a letter from Sirius (Gran's cousin and his godfather's godfather) boasting about how he'd spent his inheritance. In Harry and Ginny's attic there were mostly pictures and letters, but Teddy had also seen some Black Family goblets, and a stuffed dog that Ginny's brother (Uncle George's twin) gave to her when they were little.

He wasn't sure he really wanted to find what had been shoved up here among the cool things like old wands and discarded prank things and Ron's entire collection of Martin Miggs comics.

"Teddy, look at these!" Victoire giggled, holding up a maroon thing that looked like a rather sad and hideous dress. "They say 'property of Ronald Weasley' on the back!"

Teddy snorted with laughter, picturing Ron dressed in that thing.

"Ooooo! Wedding pictures!" Victoire squealed, dropping the dress robes and diving for a white and gold photo album.

Teddy watched her sit cross-legged on the floor and flip through the old pictures for a few minutes, but weddings did not hold his attention like they did hers. He carefully moved off along the wall, looking at all the boxes and trying to pick a safe one. He felt like he was moving through a minefield, trying to avoid stumbling upon sad memories.

In the back corner there was a box labeled 'Ron and Ginny's letters'. Teddy sat down in front of it and tugged the cardboard flaps open. A thick plume of dust erupted in his face. Once he'd stopped sneezing his head off, Teddy blinked down at the stacks of yellowing paper. He pulled a few out and squinted at the extremely crooked and messy writing. He nearly fell over laughing when he realized what it was.

_Dear Harry Potter_

_My mum told me about how you got rid of You-Know-Who and I wanted to tell you that me and my sister think it was really brave and that we're really glad you didn't get killed. My mum said you are my age and that you live with Muggles and I thought maybe, if you ever got bored and wanted to see some magic, you might want to come and play at our house. Me and Ginny got a toy broom and you could ride it if you wanted to. It'd be real cool to meet a real-live hero. _

_From Ronald Bilious Weasley, age 6 _

_P.S. my brother Percy made sure I spelled everything right so if I made a mistake it's his fault_

By the time Teddy reached the bottom of this letter, he was grinning so hard his face hurt.

"What's so funny?" Victoire asked, wondering over to him dressed up in one of her grandma's old dress robes and severely-out-of-style witch's hat.

Teddy passed her the letter he'd just read and dug around in the box for another one. Victoire plopped down next to him and began to giggle as she read.

"Uncle Ron was little like Dom once!" she snickered, completely missing the point of the letter. Teddy sighed exasperatedly. Honestly, kids.

There was at least a dozen like it from both Ron and Ginny. Ginny had even given detailed instructions on how Harry should find her on the first day of school once they started Hogwarts. The last two letters were dated after Ron and Harry must have started Hogwarts if Teddy did his math right. The first one was Ron's first letter home telling how he really _had _sat next to Harry Potter and it turned out he was just a normal kid.

The very last letter wasn't written by Ron or Ginny, though. It was neat and long and not blotched with ink. It also wasn't addressed to Harry Potter.

_Dear Professor Dumbledore,_

_I'm not sure if you are already aware of this, but I thought it would be best to make sure. Harry Potter arrived at our house early this morning. We hadn't been receiving letters from him all summer, though my son, Ron, had been_ _writing to him. Apparently my sons decided to take it upon themselves to go and get Harry last night. You may rest assured that my husband and I have dealt with them accordingly, but we are happy to have Harry staying with us for the rest of the summer. _

_There are a few things that my sons said after returning, however, that I haven't been able to shake off. I'm sure you are keeping a close eye on the situation and my sons have been known to exaggerate, but, again, I suppose it's better to be safe than sorry. My sons tell me that Harry's aunt and uncle had locked him in his bedroom and even fit bars on his windows. Ron told me they locked up all of his school things and wouldn't even let him let his owl out to send letters or even hunt. According to my son George, they fed him through a cat flap in his bedroom door. _

_As I said before, it is very possible my sons are stretching the truth to soften me up, but the poor boy is ever so thin that I can't help but wonder what exactly has been going on in the Dursley household. It would put my mind at ease if you could look into the situation and tell me if my sons have any credibility on the matter. _

_Hoping you are having an enjoyable summer, _

_Sincerely_

_Molly Weasley_

Teddy shoved the letter back in its box and stared at his hands. A sick sort of cold was congealing in his gut. He stood up and kicked the box away from him.

"Come on, Vic. We should leave," Teddy said in a hollow sort of voice.

Victoire, who had gotten bored with the letters and was digging through some of Ginny's old baby clothes looked around at his sudden change of voice.

"What's the matter, Teddy?"

"Nothing. Your Gran'll be coming in soon's all."

"You're lying," she told him, but she began to struggle out of the old dress robes anyway.

Teddy didn't wait for her. He hurried across the attic and took the stairs two at a time, jumping past Dominique and setting off at a run down the zigzagging staircase. Dominique's voice floated after him, "Why're you running, Teddy? Did you find a spider? Was I good guard?" But Teddy didn't look back.

Harry stepped dizzily out of the fireplace brushing soot off his robes just as Mrs. Weasley was sending the last of the dinner plates soaring into their cupboards.

"Hello dear," she said fondly.

"Hi Molly. The house still standing then?" Harry asked, smiling slightly.

"James and Al were very good today," Mrs. Weasley informed him. "We played outside as it was so nice out. Wore them out nicely for you. I think Arthur is reading them a story in the living room."

"Teddy and Vic didn't get into too much trouble?"

"Well…" Mrs. Weasley glanced towards the back door. Harry could see Teddy's bright turquoise hair bathed in flickering lamplight through a gap in the curtains. "He's been rather quiet all afternoon. I'm sure something's bothering him, but every time I try to ask, he mumbles something and slips away."

"I'll go see if I can get it out of him," said Harry.

He crossed the little kitchen in a few strides and slipped quietly out onto the back steps. Teddy looked around, but when he saw it was Harry quickly ducked his head.

"Hey Teddy-bear," Harry said, sitting down next to him on the step.

Apart from grimacing at the little-kid nickname, Teddy didn't respond.

Harry tried again. "Did you have a good time with Victoire today?"

Teddy shrugged and started fiddling with his shoelaces.

"Something the matter, Teddy?" Harry asked softly. He had enough experience to know that if his normally-bright-and-bubbly godson wouldn't even talk to him, there was definitely something up.

Teddy bit his lip and avoided Harry's eyes. He'd tried all day to push away the sick feeling that letter had caused. If all those things about those Dursleys had been true, surely Dumbledore would have taken care of it right away. Teddy knew Harry got on alright with them now. If they'd starved him he wouldn't send them Christmas cards, right?

But he couldn't get the words out of his head. He didn't know much about Harry's childhood. He'd heard stories about Hogwarts and the war of course, but all he knew about his godfather's life outside of school was that he'd lived with his aunt and uncle because his parents died when he was a baby. Teddy had gotten the impression that nobody liked the Dursleys much, but he'd never thought they'd actually been cruel to Harry. The idea twisted his insides.

When Teddy didn't respond, Harry nudged him gently in the side. "Hey, Ted, what's up? Talk to me."

"It's…" Teddy's voice died in his throat. He wanted to ask – needed to know if it was true. But he couldn't seem to give voice to it.

"What is it?" Harry prompted.

"I…found something today," Teddy began slowly. "It was an old letter Ginny's mum wrote to Professor Dumbledore when you were in school."

He snuck a glance through his turquoise bangs at Harry, but his godfather had merely raised an eyebrow.

"I think it was right after your first year. Summer of '92 right?" Teddy went on. "Molly was-was worried about… she said they were starving you. Your aunt and uncle. She said they kept you locked up and wouldn't let you write to anybody and fed you through a cat flap." The words tumbled out of his mouth faster and faster until he ended breathless and shaking slightly. It was much worse when he listed it off like that.

Teddy was afraid to look at Harry. He wasn't sure what he'd see there, what these memories – if they were true – would do. A silent minute stretched on between them, seeming much longer to Teddy. Then he heard Harry sigh.

"That was a particularly bad summer," Harry said heavily, sounding very far away. "At least until Ron and the twins rescued me in the dead of night and brought me here."

Teddy's head snapped up. "It's true? That's what they did to you?" His voice sounded strangled.

Harry hesitated, looking like he wished he would never have to talk about this again. "It was only like that for a few days."

"Until Ron came to get you. But they would have left you like that all summer, wouldn't they? You were, what? Twelve? What did you ever do to deserve that?"

The sick feeling was bubbling into rage. Teddy didn't know if he was about to start screaming or crying, but he was shaking worse than ever now.

"Teddy, listen," Harry said, laying a hand on Teddy's arm, but Teddy shot to his feet and paced away from him. Halfway across the yard, Teddy turned and came back to stand in front of Harry.

"What else did they do?" he asked in a low voice.

"Teddy – "

"What else did they do? Did they-did they hit you?" Teddy's eyes were glistening and he was staring at Harry fiercely. There was more determination then Harry had ever seen there before.

"No, Teddy. They didn't lay a finger on me," Harry told him, not entirely truthfully. Dudley and his gang had made it their favorite past time, but that wasn't what Teddy was asking about, and then there was the time his uncle had once nearly strangled him for listening to the news outside their living room window, but that was only one time.

Teddy, however, was not buying it. Maybe they never hit him, but locking a kid up like that wasn't something people just started to do randomly. There was more to this. He couldn't explain why he needed to know. Maybe because Harry was the closest thing to a father he had and the fact that he had never told Teddy about such a big thing felt almost like a betrayal.

Harry, for his part, took one look at Teddy's stubborn face and knew he wasn't getting away that easily. He let out a gusty breath and dropped his head into his hands. After nine years, he'd hoped this parenting thing might get a little easier, but it never did.

After a minute Harry lifted his gaze back to his godson. "You don't know how lucky you are," he told Teddy quietly. "You've got so many people who love you…always have. I didn't have that when I was growing up. My aunt and uncle didn't like magic at all. They didn't like my parents and they liked me even less. They didn't want me in their house and they made that pretty clear. Believe me, the feeling was mutual.

"But when I was eleven, I went to Hogwarts, and the Weasleys sort of adopted me. I only had to go back to them for a few weeks a year, and I had Ron and Hermione and all the Weasleys and eventually Sirius and your mum and dad and most of the order checking up on me. I've got a family _now_ Ted," Harry added softly. "I've put that part of my life behind me. I'm okay."

Harry watched Teddy uncertainly. He wasn't at all sure that he'd said the right thing. He had never thought about how to handle this sort of thing.

Teddy didn't say anything. He just kept gazing at Harry as if he'd never seen him before. And then, without warning, he flew at him and flung his arms around Harry's neck like he hadn't done since he was about six years old.

"I'm sorry," Teddy sniffled into Harry's shoulder. "For ever complaining about anything. I had it pretty good really. You didn't deserve what they did."

He tightened his arms briefly before letting go and disappearing into the house before Harry could say anything else.

**A/N: Alright, now I can tell you that I'm not really sure about this. A bit of an anti=climactic answer, sorry, but there are some parts I like and some I just don't. The end for instance. If you have ideas on how I could improve the ending, I'd love to hear them so I can fix it up. But since it's been so long (Again, really really really sorry about that! D: ) I decided to just post it like this and try to fix it later. Well, please don't forget to drop me a line. I really need some feedback on this chapter! :D**


	13. 22nd

**A/N: *Edges cautiously into the room and looks around sheepishly* Remember me? Yeah, I finally updated after… well, WAY too long XD. Okay so I really am SO sorry about that! I didn't mean to leave it so long, I just… well, homework and surgery and more homework and really REALLY bad writers block for some unknown reason… but you probably don't want to hear my excuses :D**

**Right, in other news, I finally have a BETA for this story! Yay! So lots and lots of thanks for authorEmilyRay! Hopefully that means good things for you guys! Anyways, here's the next chapter and again, I'm SO sorry! I hope the next one will be up sooner, but exams and papers are threatening to crush me to death, so… Well, I'll let you read! Don't own nothin' either! **

Very slowly, gray dawn light seeped through the curtained window and spread across the ceiling as the sun crept over the horizon. Harry lay still, watching its progress blankly. He had been awake for hours.

It had snuck up on him, today. It wasn't as if he'd spent months dreading it. It hadn't hit him until Ginny brought it up last night. They'd been going about their normal banter, talking about work and the new baby Percy and Audrey were expecting and whether Ron and Hermione would ever set a date for their wedding (going on two years of engagement now), when Ginny mentioned his birthday.

"Twenty-two," she'd said off-handedly. "Wow, Potter, you're getting old!"

She'd given him that wicked look and he'd chuckled at her teasing. It was funny. But it was true.

He'd hadn't expected to make it to eighteen, much less twenty-two. And here he was, officially twenty-two. Older than Sirius had been when he'd been sent to Azkaban. Older than Wormtail had been when he sold out all of his friends. Older than Fred and not much younger than Tonks had been when they'd become casualties of the final battle. Officially older than his parents would ever be.

It was strange to be older than his own parents. He wished the sun would crawl back down behind the horizon and the earth would spin backwards and he could still think of his parents as guiding hands that knew everything. Not that they'd been able to guide him much, but he'd always looked up to them, tried to be like them, make them proud. Now he was the one with more experience, the one who was older and wiser and who was he supposed to look up to now?

He felt Ginny stir beside him and pretended to be asleep as she brushed a kiss on his cheek and slipped out of bed to make his 'surprise' breakfast. Ron and Hermione would be here soon to help 'occupy' him while they set up for the party they all insisted on throwing him every year (no matter how much he insisted he didn't want one). Then the house would be bursting with all the Weasleys and their friends and they'd all be laughing and grinning and celebrating while he was just wishing for the day to be over, or better yet not have come at all.

Unable to lay there another second longer with these thoughts swirling in his head, Harry rolled out of bed, scrambled into the first clean set of robes he could find, scribbled a note to Ginny that he'd be back for the party, and disapperated.

He wasn't entirely sure where he'd decided to go until he opened his eyes to see the familiar silhouette of the church in the village square. He turned slowly to be met with the small graveyard that stretched out behind it, looking peaceful and solemn as ever in the early-morning light. He had not been here for a long time; not since shortly after he and Ginny had moved into the little house on the outskirts of the village, and that was the only time he'd come back since the Christmas he was seventeen.

As though on auto-pilot, Harry moved slowly towards the white stone near the back of the cemetery. When he reached it, he dropped onto the grass and buried his face in his knees. He didn't want to face the names and dates for some reason, couldn't bring himself to look at them. He did not know what possessed him to come here – it surely couldn't make him feel any better – but now that he was here, he couldn't find the energy to leave.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Teddy sat on the counter of Harry and Ginny's house, licking the frosting off a wooden spoon and keeping an eye on the door as he waited impatiently for Harry to come back. Teddy had spent the morning making a very special surprise for his godfather on account of today being his birthday. He had cut out his favorite pictures from his magic coloring books and stuck them onto a big banner and then Hermione had helped him write HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY on it in big letters that she'd made flash all different colors. Teddy had even drawn pictures of Harry on his broom and of snitches and lions and monkeys because monkeys were cool. Teddy had decided that he was getting his very own monkey and he couldn't wait to tell Harry about it.

"Ginny, when's Harry gonna be back?" Teddy asked for the tenth time that morning.

"In time for the party," Ginny told him again as she concentrated on putting frosting snitches on a big chocolate cake her mother had made.

"When is the party?" Teddy wanted to know.

"When everyone else gets here," Ginny supplied rather unhelpfully.

Teddy sighed and went back to staring at the door. He did not notice the worried looks that passed between Ginny and Hermione, who was supervising the dishes that were scrubbing themselves clean in the sink. Harry had never just taken off like this and not told them where he was going. It wasn't like him.

XxXxXxXxXxX

"Ginny, are you sure he knows there's a party?" Teddy asked, clinging onto Ginny's hand as she led him through the crowded kitchen and into the backyard.

"He'll be here, don't worry Teddy," Ginny said, hoisting the little boy up into her arms and smiling reassuringly at him.

Teddy looked at her skeptically. "_Everyone_'s here but Harry. Maybe we should go look for him. Maybe he got lost. Maybe he's whistling for us but we can't hear 'cause it's too loud here," he added, looking worried.

Teddy's Muggle preschool class had learned all about camping and what to do if you get lost in the woods. Teddy had since taken to hiding under tables and behind the sofa and whistling until somebody found him.

"I'm sure he's fine," Ginny told him. "He can Apperate you know."

But Teddy was already wriggling out of her grip and darting off into the sea of legs, calling over his shoulder to Ginny, "I better go get my binoculars!"

The house was much less crowded than it had been even a few minutes ago. Most people had made their way into the back garden. Teddy scrambled up the stairs to his room where he'd left his backpack to retrieve his trusted explorer binoculars and was flying back down the steps with them bouncing around his neck when the front door opened.

"Harry!" Teddy nearly screamed, turning his course slightly so that he collided with Harry's legs at top speed.

"Hey kiddo," Harry mumbled, bending down to pry Teddy off his legs and scoop him up.

"Harry!"

Ginny had folowed Teddy into the house and now she hurried over to the pair of them looking relieved. "Are you all right?" she asked when she was close enough to look into his eyes.

"I'm fine," Harry said, mustering a strained sort of smile to which Ginny only rolled her eyes.

"I thought you were lost," Teddy told him earnestly, wrapping his arms tightly around Harry's neck. "I got my 'splorer binoculars so we could go looking for you."

"That's very brave of you," said Harry, smiling a little in spite of himself. "But I just lost track of time."

"I got something to show you!" Teddy exclaimed excitedly, wiggling down out of Harry's arms and grabbing his hand to drag him over to the banner Hermione had pinned to the wall. "I made it for you!" he said proudly, pointing up at the scribbles.

"You did a very nice job," Harry complimented, examining the monkeys Teddy had drawn dangling all over the letters.

At that moment, a small pink blur shot through the back door, squealing, "Teh-deeeeeee!" at the top of her voice.

"Hi Vicky," Teddy said when the little blur had stumbled to a halt in front of him and pushed her strawberry-blond hair out of her face.

"Play Teh-dy?" Victoire asked hopefully, pointing to the back door.

Teddy looked uncertainly up at his godfather, who was watching them with a rather far-off look in his eyes. It made Teddy worry he'd get lost again.

"Go on Ted," Ginny said softly. "I'll keep an eye on him."

Teddy looked dubious, but allowed himself to be dragged into the back garden anyway.

"Come on," Ginny said quietly, taking Harry's hand and leading him out into the crowd too.

Harry drifted from conversation to conversation, nodding and smiling and laughing when everyone else did, but not really paying attention. He could feel Hermione's worried eyes on him and thought she was probably the only one who knew why he wasn't in the mood to celebrate today, being the only one besides himself to have seen his parents' graves and also being Hermione. He avoided her gaze, not wanting to see the pity or sympathy he was sure was there.

He had not felt his parents' absence this keenly since he was a teenager. Why did he suddenly feel like a lost little kid, waiting for someone to find him and take him home? Spending all morning beside Lily and James's grave with nothing but the stony silence of the graveyard had only made them seem farther away. Like an ocean as vast as the universe separated them from him and every second he aged widened the gap.

"Harry?"

Harry started at the little voice at his knee. He was leaning against the back garden wall, staring unseeingly up at dusky sky, but he looked down at the voice to see his godson crawling out from underneath a picnic table and looking up at him with wide blue eyes.

"What's up, Ted?" Harry asked, folding himself onto the grass beside Teddy.

Teddy crawled up onto Harry's lap and scrutinized him in his four-year-old way. "You're sad," he said finally.

Harry opened his mouth to deny it, but suddenly found he couldn't. Teddy wouldn't have believed him anyway. He doubted anyone would. He'd never been very good at hiding his emotions, he thought ruefully. "Yeah, I suppose I am."

"But it's your birthday," Teddy said, scrunching up his eyebrows as he tried to make sense of it. "You aren't supposed to be sad on your birthday."

"No, you aren't," Harry agreed. "It's difficult to explain. S'pose I've just gone barmy, eh?"

Teddy shrugged, reassured somewhat by Harry's smile, and started scanning the crowd with his binoculars. "Vicky said princes can't have 'splorer binoculars," he informed Harry conversationally.

"Oh?" Harry asked, "How else are they supposed to fight dragons and save princesses if they can't use their explorer binoculars to scope things out?"

"That's what I said, but she wouldn't listen," Teddy said, sighing in exasperation.

Teddy chattered on and on about the game he and Victoire had been playing; one of daring pirates and brave princesses and fighting giant monsters deep in the jungle. Harry found himself getting lost in Teddy's babble, a relief he had not found all day. It was easy to listen to Teddy's wild imagination. There were not undercurrents of concern, no reminders of today and what it meant. It was bliss to forget for a while.

All too soon, though, Victoire crawled out from under the table after Teddy and the pair of them raced off along the wall, once again wrapped up in the wild realm of imagination. But as they went, Harry heard Teddy's voice declaring triumphantly to Victoire, "Harry says princes have binoculars! He's grown-up! He knows!"

Harry drew his knees up and wrapped his arms around them, those simple words reverberating around in his head. _He's a grown-up! He knows! _He had heard it often enough lately, settling disputes between Teddy and Victoire. They took the grown-ups' word as law… most of the time.

It was as if those words had suddenly turned a light on and Harry was no longer wondering around in the dark. _He _was the adult now. He was the one who had to take care of everything, the one who was supposed to know everything, the one who was supposed to be doing the guiding. There was no one coming to find him, he had to find his own way.

It shouldn't seem as scary as it does, Harry thought. He'd been doing it for most of his life after all, but it was different somehow now. He felt older than he ever had. Far older than just twenty-two. The image of his parents couldn't guide him anymore, at least not like it used to. He was venturing into uncharted territory now.

"Hey," Hermione's soft voice startled him out of his thoughts.

She knelt on the ground beside him, Ron hovering uncertainly behind her. Harry guessed she'd enlightened him about the significance of this particular birthday.

"You okay?" Ginny had sunk to the ground on his other side, and rested her head on his shoulder.

Harry sucked in a breath, his eyes roving over the back garden filled with so many people he cared about… people that cared about him. His eyes settled on Teddy's bright hair, turned a vivid green for his jungle-explorer-prince role. "Yeah, I think I am."

His answer surprised him. But as he sat shoulder to shoulder with Ginny and Ron and Hermione, watching his godson and niece playing happily, he realized it was true. He'd had to be an adult for years already, and he never had to do that alone. It had always been uncharted territory. It was for everyone to a degree. The time had come to realize he'd grown up, but he wasn't alone. And they'd already handled much scarier things than adulthood… at least he hoped.

**A/N: So? What do you think? I think this was so hard because I didn't know how to verbalize these feelings. I can feel them pretty hard, just don't know how to explain them. Anyways, so I hope the next chapter is up soon-ish but like I said above, school is demanding my time. I know what I want to do to finish the story, but writing it's a different thing all together. I'm still open to suggestions if anyone out there has some! :D Also reviews would be lovely, even if you fill them with angry complaints about how long it takes me to update! :D **


	14. Looks

**A/N: Hello? *cringes* Sorry! It's been too long! I really have no excuse except that I'm getting down to the last few chapters and I know what I want to do with them, but my options are a little more limited now so inspiration has to come at just the right time. Can't flit over to write about whatever I feel like anymore! ;) Anyway, please bear with me! I'm so close to the end! Four or five more chapters to go! I promise they'll get done, but it might be quite a few weeks in between. I'm apologizing in advance! **

**Right, so I don't own anything more than I did before. **

**I hope you like this chapter!**

Teddy leaned into the mirror, squinting in the dim light of the hallway, and concentrated on making his hair change from turquoise to light brown. He changed his eyes to light blue, put a cleft in his chin, made his nose slightly longer and his eye brows arch just so; carefully copying his father's features onto his own ten-year-old face. But even in this dim light, he could tell there was something off. Despite all the similarities to the picture Teddy held in his hands, the face in the mirror seemed to lack any familiarity. There was some key element that, no matter how hard he tried, Teddy simply could not imitate.

He stared hard into the mirror, trying desperately to find some glimmer of recognition in the boy staring back at him, but the longer he looked, the stranger and more generic he seemed to become until he nearly forgot that it was his own reflection. It was no use. No matter how long he spent staring, changing minute details, looking from every angle, Teddy could not find a trace of his father – or even his mother – in himself.

He turned his back on the mirror angrily and slid down to the floor, resting his chin on his knees and staring up at the pictures that lined the Potters' hallway, barely visible in the dim glow of the nightlight Al seemed unable to sleep without. He didn't have to look closely to see Harry and Ginny in their children. James and Al both had the trademark messy, jet-black Potter hair. James had Ginny's smile and Harry's chin. Albus was the spitting image of his father, right down to those bright green, almond-shaped eyes that Harry had gotten from his own mother. Lily was only a few months old, but it was easy to see the Weasley in her bright red hair. Even in the wedding picture of Molly and Arthur Teddy could find traces of Ginny in Molly's eyes and Arthur's smile.

It was easy to see the biological connection that bound the generations together, but Teddy seemed to have lost his link. He bit his lip and buried his face in his arms, feeling miserable and lonely and wishing he could find some part of his parents in himself.

XxXxX

Harry laid his glasses on his desk and sat back, burying his face in his hands. He was so tired. If someone had told him how much paperwork assuming the position of Head Auror would require, he might have reconsidered taking the job. But, as Ron told him when he dropped by Harry's new office earlier that day to turn in some reports and laugh at him a bit, it was too late now.

Harry raised his head to glance at the clock and groaned. How had it gotten that late so quickly? Ginny wasn't going to like him creeping into bed in the middle of the night for the third night in a row. He glanced back at the still-daunting stack of papers that had yet to be reviewed and signed. They would just have to wait until morning. He put his glasses back on and heaved himself tiredly out of his chair.

By the time Harry reached the landing and started stumbling towards his bedroom door, he was nearly asleep. It wasn't until he nearly tripped over him that Harry noticed the figure huddled on the floor in front of the hall mirror.

"Teddy?" he asked blearily, squinting down at the mop of light brown hair.

The only response he got was a muffled sniffle. Concerned, Harry lowered himself wearily to the floor opposite his godson, sleep forgotten for the moment. From the time he was about five on, Teddy had rarely ever deviated from his usual turquoise hair color. Something was obviously very wrong.

"What's up, buddy?" Harry asked softly, nudging Teddy gently.

"Nothing," Teddy sniffled completely unconvincingly.

"I beg to differ," Harry said mildly. "Did you forget the way to your bed or something?"

Teddy turned his head to roll his newly-made-blue eyes at his godfather. "I just don't feel like sleeping, that's all."

"Eyes leaking again?" Harry inquired, indicating the tear tracks streaking Teddy's cheeks.

"Allergies," Teddy mumbled, rubbing his nose.

"You're allergic to cats, Ted, not dust," Harry reminded him. "Come on; tell me what's the matter."

"I…" Teddy began, "it's hard to explain."

"Give it a try. They say I'm supposed to be intelligent," Harry pressed.

"I don't look like my parents," Teddy blurted, staring fixedly at his hands. "I know. It's stupid to get upset about, but I just wish I did, that's all."

"It's not stupid," Harry told him firmly. "I treasure everything I have left of my parents."

"But it's different for you," Teddy told him miserably. "I've seen pictures of your parents…you look exactly like your dad and everybody tells you you've got your mum's eyes. You'd think me of all people would be able to look like my parents, but I can't! I can't get it right!"

Teddy turned his hair to bubblegum pink, his eyes to violet, pointed his nose, added a dimple to his left cheak, until he had all of Tonks's features on his own face. But he knew, without even studying himself in the mirror, that there was something off. That there was something of his mother missing in his own features.

"It doesn't work!" he exclaimed in frustration. "Nearly every other kid I've ever met looks at least a little like their parents, but even when I fix everything to be just like them, it's just not right! I can't see them in me!" He took a breath and found himself caught in Harry's steady gaze. He looked away quickly, blinking back those stupid tears that always seemed to come at the worst times.

"No one ever tells me I'm like them," he added in a low voice, pressing his forehead against his knees. "They don't look at me and think of how great my parents were –" his voice caught in his through, and he hid his face completely in his arms again.

"I do," Harry said very quietly, wrapping an arm around the boy's slightly trembling shoulders. "Every time I look at you I see them in you."

Teddy glanced cautiously up at Harry from beneath his bangs. This was one those things grown-ups told kids because they know it's what they want to hear. Like: "well done! That's a beautiful finger painting!" or "Of course you can be the Minister of Magic when you grow up! You can be anything you want to be!" It was just another one of those little white lies adults told children to make them feel better, only Teddy was old enough to see through them now.

"How?" he asked sullenly, watching Harry closely.

"Well," Harry began. "There's the way you choose to go out in public with a violently bright hair-color that always attracts incredulous stares," he smiled. "Your mother did the same thing. Then there's the way you're always tripping over things and knocking things over, your mum did that all the time, too."

Teddy had heard that one before. His grandmother was always saying it.

"Then, there's the way you always seem to be able to cheer people up. Your mother could make anyone smile and your dad always seemed to know exactly what to say," Harry went on, glad to see the corners of Teddy's mouth twitch upwards. "You can get really quiet like your dad, and you think things through and read every book you can get your hands on. When things are really stressful, you tend to act calm and collected – just like your dad used to, but when things get to be too much, you haven't got a problem telling us exactly what you think." Harry laughed softly, remembering Tonks's outburst in the hospital wing about how she didn't care about Remus being a werewolf.

"You change your nose during meals to make the boys laugh; your mum used to do that too, and you tilt your head to the side just like Remus would do when he was reading. Teddy you are _so_ much like them; I've thought that every day since I first saw you!"

Harry squeezed his shoulders reassuringly and tipped his face up with a finger to look directly into Teddy's eyes. "You don't have to try to be like them, you are already. But you know your parents wouldn't want to you to try to be exactly like them. You are your own person. A lot of them comes out in you, but you are Teddy Remus Lupin and that's who they'd want to you to be and to look like."

"I know," Teddy mumbled, resting his head tiredly on Harry's shoulder. "But… but it would just be nice to look in the mirror and see a bit of them in me… you know, living on."

"Let's try something," Harry said, getting an idea and turning Teddy back to the mirror. "Why don't you turn your hair back to brown, only make it a bit darker and make your nose a bit longer – there, like that – and then put a cleft back in your chin, and move that dimple higher."

Teddy felt his mouth drop open slightly as he made the final adjustments. It wasn't his mother or his father staring back at him like he'd been trying to capture. It was little glimpses of both of them in a new face. For some reason, next to the darker hair and the longer nose, Teddy could see his mother in those violet eyes. And the hint of Remus Lupin lingered in his expression, even with the dimple and the more pointed nose and heart-shaped face.

He smiled and he could see both his mother and his father in that smile as he'd never been able to before. Each little bit by itself somehow made him look more like his parents than they ever had all put together. Subconsciously, he raised a hand to trace his reflection, marveling at how the little flaws somehow made it more real.

"It's how you used to look when you were sleeping," Harry said very quietly, smiling a bit sadly at the reflection. "When you were little, before you had full control over your metamorphosing."

"Really?" Teddy breathed, still absorbed in the image in the mirror.

Harry nodded, smiling at the quiet delight that was slowly creeping across Teddy's face. Teddy turned suddenly to look back up at Harry.

"Thanks," he whispered, somehow feeling the word to be wholly inadequate for what Harry had just given him.

"No problem," Harry replied, ruffling Teddy's hair and smiling down at him. "Think we can get any sleep at all tonight?"

"Can – can I stay out here for just a bit longer?" Teddy asked tentatively, eyes straying back to his reflection.

Harry looked at it, too. It was a little breath-taking how much he could see Remus and Tonks there. "Sure, just…" his thoughts strayed to another mirror that had shown another boy his first real glimpses of his parents sixteen years ago. "Just not too long, kay?"

XxXxX

Teddy didn't keep that look. In the morning he went back to his old turquoise hair and tawny eyes, and that was how he kept it most of the time. Once in a while, when he was feeling his parents' absence particularly keenly, he would change to that special face, where he could catch glimpses of Remus and Tonks. But most of the time he favored his blue hair and whatever else he fancied to go along with it. Because that was him, the real Teddy Remus Lupin.

**A/N: Did you like it? I hope so! Please tell me? Anyway, I took some artistic liberty with some of the descriptions because you don't really find out too much about Remus's appearance other than his hair color in the books. The same with Tonks too. :D Well, I let you get to reviewing! **


	15. Bully

**A/N: Um… hello? If anyone's still out there, please don't throw anything at me! Yeah, it's been way longer than I wanted it to be. This chapter gave me trouble. But it's done now, so… here it is! I'm sorry it took so long. The end is in sight! We've just got to get there. Thanks for sticking with me! (And especially for those who review!) You can really thank my awesome BETA, authorEmilyRay for this one getting done. It's all her brilliant suggestions that got this to the finish line! **

Professor Longbottom surveyed Teddy silently across his cluttered desk. There was a worried crease between his brows and a sad sort of disappointment in his eyes that Teddy could hardly stand. He slouched in his chair in his head of house's office, arms folded defiantly across his chest, scowling at his shoelaces.

He knew Neville hated having to reprimand any of his students, especially him, and he always played the I-expected-better-of-you card. This approach struck Teddy more effectively than outright anger or punishment because on top of the whole situation that got him in trouble in the first place, he had to endure waves of guilt. It also happened to be Harry's favorite form of discipline.

A soft knock on the office door brought both Neville and Teddy out of their thoughts. Neville jumped and looked up at the door, but the only sign that Teddy had heard it at all was the increased intensity with which he glowered at the floor. Any other kid would just get a week of detention, Teddy thought bitterly as Neville got up to open the door. But when your head of house has known you since you were a baby and is good friends with your godfather, you warrant special treatment.

"Good to see you Neville," came Harry's quiet voice from behind Teddy, followed by a murmured greeting from his grandmother. A moment later, Teddy felt a hand on his shoulder and resolutely refused to look up into his godfather's steady, concerned gaze.

Neville conjured two extra chairs for Harry and Teddy's grandmother, and leaned against his desk to survey the surly thirteen-year-old before him.

"Teddy? Would you like to explain why we're here?" he asked in a level voice.

Teddy bit his tongue and stayed silent, so Neville was forced to relay the story.

"Teddy got into a fight with two Slytherin students," he informed the other two adults mildly. "Mr. Warrington was sent to the hospital wing due to a hex cast by Mr. Lupin here."

"What sort of hex?" Harry asked swiftly.

"Furnunculus," Neville answered, raising an eyebrow at Harry. "Madam Pomfrey will be taking care of his boils now, I suppose. Normally I would just give them all detention and be done with it," he went on, fidgeting with a small potted plant on his desk. "But this is the fourth time in two weeks Teddy's been caught fighting."

Teddy could feel all three pairs of eyes on him and surreptitiously made his bangs grow slightly longer to avoid their gazes.

"Teddy? Is there something you'd like to tell us?" Harry asked.

"Not really," Teddy muttered, but in actuality there was a great deal he wanted to tell them. Instead he bit harder on his tongue. This was his battle, and if he went running to Neville or Harry or his grandmother with it, things would just be worse.

Teddy's grandmother scrutinized him closely, but Harry turned back to Neville in consternation.

"Do you know what these fights have been about?" he asked.

"No," Neville replied, sighing. "The other students involved claim they were just talking to Teddy and he started attacking them, and Teddy hasn't told us anything."

"Does it really matter?" Teddy asked, tipping his head back to look up at the ceiling instead. "I still broke school rules. Can't I just serve my detentions and forget about it?"

"Teddy, I'm trying to help you out here," Neville said, a placatory note in his voice. "But we need to know what's going on. If Warrington and the others aren't telling the whole truth, I need you to tell me."

"Well they are," Teddy said stubbornly. "There's nothing else to tell. Can I go now?"

"Teddy," Andromeda reprimanded. "You're not to speak to your professors in that tone."

"Sorry," Teddy mumbled, anger rising in his stomach but wanting to get out of the office as fast as he could. "May I leave now, Professor?"

Neville looked reluctant, but Teddy was obviously not going to say anything more that evening. "Yes, Teddy, you can go. Detention next Saturday at six, greenhouse two, fertilizing flutterby bushes."

Teddy nodded mutely and sprang from his chair, fleeing the office as quickly as he could without running.

Neville let out a gusty breath and covered his face with his hands.

"I always get horrible flashbacks of Snape when I have to say things like that," he muttered.

"Don't worry, mate," Harry told him bracingly, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "You sound way more like Lupin than Snape."

"Isn't that ironic," Neville mumbled.

"So what do you think he's not telling us?" Andromeda asked.

"I really don't know," Neville told her ruefully. "Something, obviously. I mean, it's the same sort of stories Malfoy and his cronies always used when they were goading us, but Snape was the only one who ever took their word for it."

"Do you think he's being harassed?" Harry asked quietly.

Neville bit his lip. "I don't know anything for sure. Not as long as he's not talking. There weren't any witnesses, which I don't think was a coincidence, but I wish Teddy would at least tell his side of things."

"So what are we going to do?" Harry asked worriedly.

"I don't know," Neville said in frustration. "This was my last idea, bringing you two in. If he's not telling you, he's not telling."

"If someone is giving him a hard time, you need to stop it now," said Andromeda. "It will only get worse the longer it goes on."

"Believe me, I know," Neville assured her. "Most of the staff is keeping an eye out, but we can't follow him everywhere he goes. He's already not too happy with being watched."

"I know the feeling," Harry muttered under his breath, sympathizing with his godson, but at the same time being extremely frustrated with him.

At that moment there was a hesitant knock on Neville's office door, and he crossed the room to answer it.

"Victoire," he said in surprise. "Come in, come in. Is there something I can do for you?"

Harry's niece stepped into the room, winding a strand of long strawberry blonde hair nervously around her finger.

"What's up, Vic?" Harry asked, seeing the distress on her face.

Victoire bit her lip, large blue eyes on the floor.

"I have to tell you something," she said finally. "Teddy doesn't want me to say anything, but – but I think you should know."

Victoire took a breath and looked straight up at her uncle. "They – Warrington and the other Slytherins – they try to get him alone so they can gang up on him. See, it got out when they started studying werewolves in Defense Against the Dark Arts that Teddy's dad was one. They started out leaving horrible notes on his desk and howling at him in the corridors. But now they're cornering him and pushing him around and calling him – calling him-"

Victoire broke off, looking pained.

Harry, Neville, and Andromeda exchanged looks.

"Vic?" Harry said gently, laying a hand on her arm. "Have you seen any of this?"

Victoire grimaced, but nodded. "I was worried about him so I followed him back to Gryffindor Tower after dinner today and I saw the whole thing. Teddy made me promise I wouldn't tell, but – Uncle Harry, it was awful!" she exclaimed, stamping her foot. "They shoved him into the wall and called him a little mutant freak and said he ought to be locked up in a cage in St. Mungo's! And then they started saying terrible things about Teddy's dad and how he should have been neutered and loads of rotten things like that and Teddy snapped and they started fighting! It wasn't really Teddy's fault!"

Tears had started trickling down Victoire's cheeks as she recounted the incident and she buried her face in her hands. Harry put a comforting arm around her shoulders, but his eyes were flashing dangerously. Andromeda had gone white, and Neville looked like he'd been kicked in the stomach.

"Those little –" Harry broke off, biting down on his cheek. "How can they still go around doing stuff like that?" he demanded furiously.

"They won't be anymore," Neville said in a deadly sort of voice.

"You won't tell Teddy it was me that told, will you?" Victoire asked tearfully, wiping her cheeks with her palm. "He'll _hate _me."

"I'll see to it that he doesn't," Andromeda assured her. "You did the right thing. He should have told us himself."

"Why didn't tell anybody?" Harry asked in frustration.

Neville gave him an incredulous look. "I don't know, he's acting just like you."

He glanced pointedly at the back of Harry's right hand.

"That was different," Harry mumbled, shoving his hand in his pocket.

XxXxX

Teddy hadn't gone back to Gryffindor tower like he was supposed to. The story had surely spread by now – they always did – and he was not in the mood to face all the rumors and questions that surely awaited him there.

He leaned against the sill of one of the glassless windows in the Owlery, feeling chilly air whip his face and staring blankly at the cold, distant stars. All around him, amber eyes blinked open and owls swooped past him into the night, dark as shadows.

The things Warrington and the other Slytherins had said were echoing around his head and Victoire's tear-streaked face as she emerged from behind a statue having heard everything flashed in front of his eyes. He had never wanted term to end so badly before in his life.

The door creaked behind him and Teddy whirled round, his wand out of his pocket before you could think.

"Good reflexes," Harry observed. "I've trained you well."

Teddy put his wand away and turned back to the window. He should have been expecting this.

Harry crossed the straw-strewn floor, hands in pockets, gazing up at the many rustling owls blinking down at him and leaned against the windowsill beside Teddy.

"She told, didn't she?" Teddy said in a low voice, scowling at the full moon that hung above the Forbidden Forest.

"_You _should have told us," Harry said with mild reproach.

"Why? So you can go slap them on the wrist and tell them to leave the little mutant alone –"

"You're not a mutant!" Harry interrupted angrily. "Don't call yourself that. Don't even think it."

But Teddy plowed on as though he hadn't heard. "Because that doesn't work! If I don't get the better of them, they'll just come down twice as hard the moment your backs are turned."

"Getting the better of them could get you expelled, Teddy," Harry told him, aggravation leaking through in his voice.

"Well it doesn't matter now because Victoire went and opened her fat mouth," Teddy snapped.

"Hey, she's the one who got things right here," said Harry, grabbing Teddy's shoulder and turning him slightly to look him in the eye. "What they were doing was harassment, Teddy and it needed to be stopped. She was looking out of you. Wouldn't you have done the same for her if the situation was flipped?"

"It's not the same. She's not half werewolf!" Teddy nearly shouted.

He pulled out of Harry's grip and turned away, kicking the wall angrily.

And before he could stop them, hot tears pricked his eyes. His shoulder ached where Warrington had shoved him into the wall and his stomach ached from all the things they'd said.

"I hate them!" he choked out. "Warrington and his cronies, I hate them!"

"Teddy…" Harry murmured sadly. And because there was nothing he could think to say, he wrapped an arm around Teddy's shoulders.

And because there was nothing else he could do, Teddy turned and buried his face in his godfather's chest; something he hadn't allowed himself to do in a long time.

XxXxX

"I hate that you have to hear things like that," Harry said as he walked Teddy back to Gryffindor Tower later. "But, Teddy, sending them to the hospital wing every other week isn't going to make them stop. Believe me."

"Yeah, but it's satisfying," Teddy muttered, scuffing his shows on the stone floor.

"For five minutes, maybe, but isn't it a million times more frustrating to be serving detention because of them?" Harry countered.

Teddy didn't answer.

"Look, you can bet they'll be in a lot of trouble for this and I wish I could tell you this is all over, but the truth is, Teddy, it isn't," Harry went on seriously. "Unfortunately, you're going to have to deal with people like Warrington for the rest of your life. Not just over who your father was, but anything to make you angry. And throwing a hex at them is not going to shut them up. It'll just get you in trouble."

"So what am I supposed to do? Let them say whatever they want to me? Just take it like a coward?" Teddy demanded angrily.

"No," Harry said patiently. "But the only reason they do stuff like that is to get a rise out of you. Every time you rise to the bait, they get what they want. Do you want to keep giving them that satisfaction?"

They had reached the Fat Lady's portrait. Teddy didn't respond, but he was reluctant to give the password just yet. He stood twisting his fingers together and staring miserably at a spot on the floor. After a minute he heard Harry sigh heavily beside him, but it didn't sound irritated or impatient.

"You're a good kid, Teddy," he said, pushing a hand through Teddy's hair and tilting Teddy's face up to look him in the eye again. "You are."

XxXxX

"Hey, Lupin!"

The snide voice shot down the corridor, grating on Teddy's ears and making him squeeze his eyes shut. He supposed six weeks of detention and a set of severe lectures by the Headmistress herself wasn't even enough to shut them all up.

"Oi, mutt! I'm talking to you!" Vince Goyle shouted down the long hallway.

A second later a fanged Frisbee smacked into Teddy's back and he froze. He turned slowly around and raised an eyebrow coldly at the gorilla-ish boy stomping towards him, a trollish grin on his face, a little knot of nasty-looking Slytherins sniggered from where they watched like hungry dogs in the shadows.

"So you ran to Longbottom with your tail between your legs did you?" Goyle sneered.

"What do you want, Goyle?" Teddy said in a bored voice, rolling his eyes.

"Just trying to figure out why the vermin that run this place would let a mutant like you in and then lock us up for defending ourselves against you," Goyle rattled off, grinning as if he was proud that he'd remembered all of it.

"You rehearse that?" Teddy asked, half-seriously because he'd never heard the other boy string together such a complicated sentence.

"Just picking up where Warrington had to leave off," he snarled. "Your dad was a filthy beast who should've been put down and there's a cage in St. Mungo's with your name on it. Mark my words,, Lupin, you can't hide under your Goddaddy's arm for the rest of your life."

The watching Slytherins jeered and howled and Goyle leered with satisfaction.

"That's funny," Teddy said coolly, ignoring the fury rushing in his ears. "Wasn't it _your _dad that got locked up in Azkaban for three years for torturing his fellow students? Sounds pretty blood-thirsty and monstrous to me. And with the amount of in-breeding that goes on in those 'pure-blood' families you're so proud of, you'll probably be the one in that cage."

Goyle snarled in rage, reaching for his wand, but it was flying out of his hand the second he'd gotten his fingers around it. Teddy stowed his own wand back in his pocket, smirking slightly. Having Harry Potter as your godfather didn't count for nothing in a duel.

"I'm not the dangerous one here. And unless you lot want to get expelled, leave me alone."

And with one last cold look, Teddy turned and walked away.

**A/N: Right, I know I haven't exactly been on top of things lately, but I'd still love reviews! Hopefully this story is still interesting to you all! Let's see, three more chapters left! Plus a possible epilogue. I'll try to get the next chapter up more quickly than this one! **


	16. Mad

**A/N: Hey! Okay, yeah it's been a long time. Sorry! I had this done awhile ago, but it took some time for my wonderful BETA to get it back to me! :D Thank you all for sticking with me! And for all the reviews! You guys are amazing! This one is actually in order with the last chapter. I wanted to post them in order, just because I think they're sort of part of the same arch, but different storries. Okay, anyway, I hope you like it and it was worth the wait! :D**

The bang of a door slamming echoed down three flights of stairs and into the Burrow's crowded kitchen. Andromeda sighed and dropped heavily into a chair, rubbing her temples. The others cast curious glances between her and the stairs where Teddy had disappeared without a word, five seconds after toppling out of the fireplace.

"I'm sorry about him," Andromeda said in a half-apologetic, half-frustrated tone, scowling up the stairs. "I don't know what's gotten into him lately. Ever since he came home for the Christmas Holidays it's been like living with an irate dragon."

"Don't look at me," Victoire said when several eyes swiveled in her direction. "He's been like that nearly all term. I've got no idea why. He won't talk to anyone." The casualness with which she added the last part was ruined somewhat by the hurt look in her wide blue eyes.

"Well, if he doesn't shape up soon, I don't know what I'm going to do with him. I hoped he'd at least _try_ to be civilaround company…"

"It's quite alright," said Mrs. Weasley, patting Andromeda's hand reassuringly. "I know all about moody teenage boys. I've had to deal with seven of them," she flashed a twinkling look at Harry. "The thing about them is they grow up into fine young men, as long as you just stay patient."

Whatever was on the stove started to boil and Mrs. Weasley hurried over to it as conversation broke out again.

They didn't hear another sound from Teddy for the rest of the night. Harry went up to tell him dinner was ready, but he didn't come down.

"Thank you for still taking him after this," Andromeda said to Harry and Ginny as they bundled up their sleepy children to go home later that night.

"It's not a problem," Harry told her, straightening up with Al fast asleep on his shoulder. "I was probably as bad when I was about his age."

"Twice as bad, dear," Ginny told him, patting him on the cheek. "I seem to remember being able to hear you shouting two floors away."

"Right," Harry muttered, running a hand through his hair sheepishly.

At that moment Teddy appeared at the bottom of the stairs and slouched over to them, hands in his pockets and eyes fixed on the floor. He let his grandmother wrap her arms around him and plant a kiss on his cheek before he grabbed a fistful of Floo powder and disappearing in a swirl of green flame.

Andromeda looked pleadingly at Harry and Ginny. "I just don't know what to do with him anymore!"

XxXxX

Teddy stomped up to the attic that had become his bedroom at Harry and Ginny's after Lily was born. He cast an eye around the tidy room, taking in the trunk and broomstick Harry had picked up from his grandmother's house earlier and arranged at the end of his bed and the handful of chocolate frogs Ginny had left on his bedside table for him. Ignoring the obvious effort Harry and Ginny put into making him feel at home, he threw himself down onto the bed and stared sightlessly out the window into the black night.

That was just it. They had to put effort into making him feel at home. Because it _wasn't_ his home and they _weren't _his parents and nothing could change the fact that his parents had left him to find replacements.

XxXxXxXxX

"Can I talk to you?"

Harry stood in the doorway to Teddy's bedroom. After two days of Teddy emerging only for mealtimes and retaining a surly silence even then, Harry had decided it was time to do something.

Teddy didn't look up from the homework he had spread out over the floor. "I can't exactly stop you, can I?" he shot back.

Harry raised an eyebrow. He'd never heard that edge of bitterness in his godson's voice before. Careful not to tread on the parchment and books that carpeted the floor, Harry made his way over to the desk Teddy was studiously ignoring and leaned against it.

"What's up?"

Teddy slowly lifted his head to give Harry a sarcastic look. "You're gonna have to be a little more specific."

"With you. What's up with you," Harry clarified.

"Nothing," was the grumbled response he received.

"Obviously there's something," Harry pressed. "Did something happen at school? Is Warrington giving you a hard time again? Because McGonagall would want to know –"

"I can talk to McGonagall myself if I want to," Teddy interrupted coldly.

Harry's eyebrows rose again, but he didn't comment. "Your grandmother says she's gotten letters about you skipping classes."

"So what if I have?"

"So there must be a reason behind it. If something's bothering you –"

"Is it possible that I just don't feel like sitting through lectures and listening to all that crap?" Teddy interrupted acidly.

Harry looked down with slight astonishment at the top of Teddy's sandy-brown mop of hair. It was like a stranger lay on the floor before him. He hardly recognized the fourteen-year-old in his attic. "Well, I'm sorry Ted, but that's not going to cut it. I guarantee no one really wants to sit in class all day, but that's what you go to school for."

Teddy rolled his eyes beneath his messy fringe. "It's not like I'm _missing _anything. I already know more than the textbook about the war."

Understanding suddenly blazed in Harry's mind at these words. "Oh, I see. That's what's gotten into you, isn't it?"

"Don't start that," Teddy said shortly, rolling over and getting restlessly to his feet as anger began to broil in him again.

"What?" Harry asked.

"That – that pitying, his-parents-died-in-the-war thing, like you understand everything just from that one word."

Teddy paced over to the little dresser in the corner and began rearranging the things on top of it, his back firmly to Harry.

"I've got a better idea now, then," Harry said calmly. "Teddy, I know that subject hits pretty close to home–"

"No, actually you don't know," Teddy shot at him, spinning around furiously. "You don't know a damn thing! Quit acting like just because both our parents got themselves killed, you know exactly what's going on inside my head. You haven't got a clue!"

"I never said I did," Harry answered coolly, patience slipping.

"You didn't have to," Teddy snapped.

"You tell me then. What's your problem?" Harry crossed his arms and looked steadily at his godson.

"I haven't _got _one, so you can leave me alone," Teddy told him coldly.

"Well, I think you do and I'm not leaving until I figure out what it is." Harry pulled the desk chair out and sat down.

Teddy scowled at him. "What's it to you, anyway?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm your godfather, Teddy. It kind of comes with the territory."

Teddy snorted and turned back to the dresser. "Oh, right, I forgot. You've got some personal obligation to care about me because my parents were in your life for about three seconds and died for your cause."

Harry gaped at the back of Teddy's head. How in the world had his cheerful, compassionate godson turned into this bitter teenager who could throw verbal punches with the best of them? He pushed off the last remark because he still had to be the adult here, but he couldn't deny that it stung.

"Obviously this isn't the time for this conversation," Harry said quietly, getting to his feet. He crossed to the door and turned around with his hand on the knob. "But we aren't dropping it, Ted. Like it or not, you have to go to class. I can tell you I had a hell of a lot of torturous classes – I had Dolores Umbridge as a teacher – but I sat through them anyway."

"Oh, shut up!" Teddy said with a mixture of extreme irritation and that nasty edge of anger, throwing back his head. "The whole world knows you endured a crappy adolescence. That was twenty years ago, and it's not my fault you didn't have the guts to skip out."

Harry's face hardened. He gripped the door knob so hard his knuckles were white. "You're going to class, Teddy. I don't care if you've already memorized the whole damn curriculum, if I hear about you skipping, I'll come up to Hogwarts and drag you to class myself. And you better fix that mouth of yours, too. I thought we taught you to have more respect."

Harry pulled the door open, but Teddy whirled around before he could get one step out of the room.

"Who do you think you are, exactly?" he spat. "My _father_?"

Harry froze. The words seemed to slam out with so much force that even Teddy stepped back, slightly shocked. But then he regained his furor and plunged on.

"Sorry, but he ran off to die for the greater good. You're just the nearest orphan he could find to dump his kid with!"

"Teddy –" Harry began, feeling like Teddy had just punched him in the stomach. "That isn't true and you know it. I don't want to hear you saying things like that, not in this house."

"You don't just charge off into battle without knowing there's a damn good chance you aren't coming back!" Teddy shouted. "They both knew, and they didn't care!"

"Like hell they didn't!" Harry shouted back. "They couldn't stand to let you grow up in the world we had back then, had to do anything to stop it, that's how much they cared!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Teddy said nastily, turning away again.

Harry strode forward and grabbed Teddy by the shoulder, spinning him around.

"You're parents loved you –"

"My parents _left _me!" Teddy yelled, ripping himself free of Harry's grip. "And as hard as you try to do their job, you can't make up for that because I will never be your kid."

Teddy glared at Harry, breathing hard, and Harry looked steadily down at him, something flashing in his eyes that Teddy had never seen there before. Then suddenly he turned and strode back to the door. At the threshold he turned again and fixed Teddy with a hard look.

"Your parents were trying to give you a happier life –"

"One without them in it?" Teddy half-screamed, a harsh laugh escaping his throat.

"No –"

But the anger that had been burning in him for so long had finally erupted. "THEY DIDN'T _WANT _ME! I was just a _mistake_! You know that's the truth because who the hell would want to have a kid in that world if it was so terrible? They dumped me the second they could and ran off! But you know what? It doesn't matter because I hate them too!"

"ENOUGH!" Harry roared, his voice drowning Teddy's shouts with more volume than Teddy had thought Harry was capable of. He took a step closer to Teddy, eyes flashing, and said in a low voice fraught with fury, "I could stand here and shout about the lengths your parents went to to protect you, but you won't hear a thing. When you're ready to stop feeling sorry for yourself and _understand_, then come talk to me. But until then, you will not insult their memory under this roof, understand?"

Teddy glared mutinously back, jaw set and not saying a word.

Harry turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

"That sounded like it went well," Ginny commented as Harry brushed past her at the bottom of the stairs. He disappeared into the study without a word.

XxXxX

Teddy listened to the silent house from the top of the attic steps. He could see from the dim light glowing in the hallway to pacify Al that all the bedroom doors were closed. The clock at the end of the hall said it was half-past midnight.

He lifted the schoolbag he'd stuffed with clothes and books over his shoulder and made his way down the stairs, carefully avoiding the creaky ones. He was not staying under this roof. Why should he? He'd said himself that he wasn't Harry and Ginny's kid. Why should he stay here, where he couldn't even be angry that his parents had abandoned him?

Teddy crept down the hallway, past Lily's room, which had once been his, Al's room with the door cracked just enough to allow light from the hall to chase away the darkness Al was so afraid of. As he passed James's room, Teddy heard a soft thump that made him freeze. He stood, stock-still in the hallway, listening hard. But there was only silence, and when he cautiously pushed James's door open enough to see in, he saw James sprawled on the floor, blankets tangled around him and still fast asleep. He shut the door quietly and moved past, trying not to let a smile flit across his face.

He scarcely breathed as he edged past Harry and Ginny's room to the top of the stairs. Teddy had made it down the first riser when a sleepy voice said behind him, "Watcha doin' Teddy?"

Teddy almost toppled over backwards as he whipped around. Albus stood in his bedroom doorway, half-asleep and squinting at him through his lopsided glasses, his hair stuck up all over the place like feathers.

"Nothin' much," Teddy whispered, carefully making his way back down the hallway to Al, silently cursing the fact that Albus Potter was the lightest sleeper in the world. A feather dropping could wake that kid up.

"How come you got your shoes on?" Albus mumbled as Teddy turned him around and led him back to his bed.

"Just going out," Teddy told him, pulling back the covers and hoisting Al up onto the mattress.

"Oh," said Albus drowsily.

Teddy pulled his glasses off and set them on the bedside table, then pulled the covers back up around Albus. An old memory of Harry doing that to him when he'd been small like Al rose in the back of his mind, but he pushed it away.

"Why you leavin', Teddy?" Albus mumbled, gazing blearily up at him. Teddy could make out his eyes, bright green, in the dim light from the hallway, and an image of Harry's eyes, flashing with an unfamiliar anger from that afternoon flashed in his mind.

To his horror and bewilderment, Teddy felt a sudden lump rise painfully in his throat. He swallowed hard.

"Just have to," Teddy murmured so quietly he wasn't sure if Albus heard him. "Go back to sleep Al."

Albus was already drifting off.

"G'night Teddy"

XxXxX?

Teddy stole down stairs as quickly and quietly as he could. He made it to the fireplace and was already pulling out a handful of floo powder to throw on the dimly pulsing coals when it occurred to him that he wasn't sure where to go.

A vague idea about the Leaky Cauldron had been enough for him to pack a bag and sneak downstairs, but he realized now that there was no way he could go there. Hannah would rat on him in a second, and even if she didn't, George and Angelina weren't too far off. He contemplated disguising himself, wondering if he could change his appearance drastically enough to fool Hannah this late at night. But even if he could look different, he couldn't change his voice, or the fact that he was only fourteen and looked it no matter what face he put on.

Hogsmeade was out because they'd send him straight back to school and Neville would have Harry up at the castle before he could say two words. He didn't want to show up at his grandmother's or any of the Weasleys'; that would be a one-way ticked back here. And that left only one option, really.

Sighing inwardly, Teddy dropped the floo powder back into its tin and turned away from the fireplace. He would have to walk into the village and hope that he could get a room there for now. An icy wind howled at the windows, tossing snow off the roof, and Godric's Hollow was a good hike up the road. Teddy grimaced and pulled his cloak up to cover his mouth, wishing he'd brought his scarf down. But he wasn't going back upstairs for it, so he steeled himself and pushed the front door open.

XxXxX

Breakfast was quiet.

Harry stared broodingly into his scrambled eggs, hardly touching them and Ginny knew better than to bring up what had happened yesterday with Teddy. She could count on one hand the number of times either one of them had ever raised their voice with Teddy. A shouting match like that one was unprecedented.

The children seemed to have picked up the mood. They ate relatively quietly for once, foregoing the usual squealing and banging and fidgeting that usually accompanied meals.

"I shouldn't have gotten angry like that, should I?" Harry muttered for the tenth time as Ginny refilled his coffee cup.

She gave him an exasperated look. "I can't tell you whether you should have or not, dear."

"I mean, he's a teenager. It's not fair and he's mad. I should get that, shouldn't I?"

"But sometimes the only way to get through is to get angry back," Ginny reminded him.

"Yeah… I s'pose…" he subsided again into brooding silence.

Ginny sighed and brushed a hand lightly over the top of his head as she picked up his hardly-touched breakfast.

"Jamie, will you run up to Teddy's room and see if he wants breakfast while it's still hot?" she said over her shoulder as she scraped the last of the eggs onto a plate and set the pan to washing itself in the sink.

"Teddy left," Albus said conversationally as James leapt off his chair and made to race up the stairs.

"What?" Ginny asked, turning to watch her youngest son busily smearing syrup doodles on his plate with his fingers. James hovered uncertainly by the foot of the stairs.

"Teddy's not here anymore," Albus told her, not looking up from his drawing. "He left last night. I saw him. Said he had to leave. He had shoes on,"

"Al, are you sure?" Harry asked, leaning forward and gently tilting Albus's face up with a finger. "You weren't dreaming?"

"Uh-uh," Albus said earnestly. "He waked me up and I asked him why and he told me so. Teddy's gone."

Harry whipped around, found Ginny's eyes, and she saw, quite plainly, fear there.

XxX

"Al's right, he's gone," Harry said breathlessly as he burst back into the kitchen, having run all the way up to the attic and back down again.

Wordlessly, Ginny turned and marched into the living room, grabbing floo powder off the mantel as Harry knelt down in front of their son.

"Albie? Did Teddy say where he was going?"

Albus shook his head, sucking on his syrupy fingers.

Harry tried hard to stay calm as he lifted his son onto his lap and pulled his fingers out of his mouth.

"Tell me exactly what Teddy said, last night. Everything you can remember."

XxXxX

"He's not at Andromeda's or any of my brothers' and Neville says he didn't come back to Hogwarts or into the Leaky Cauldron," Ginny reported, kneeling on the hearth rug and waiting for the room to stop spinning around her.

"Where could he have gone, then," Harry muttered in frustration, pacing the length of the living room.

"Maybe Rob's," Ginny suggested, reaching for another handful of powder to check if Teddy had fled to his friend's house.

But Harry had jerked to a halt in front of the window, staring out at something in the yard.

"No, I think I know where he went," he said before dashing for the front door, grabbing a cloak and boots on the way.

Ginny watched bewilderedly as her husband stumbled out the door, trying to put boots on and hurry at the same time. Then, standing up to look out the window, she saw the foot-prints.

XxXxX

Teddy lay listlessly on the lumpy bed he'd managed to get at the inn in Godric's Hollow. The teenage boy who had checked him in had barely even looked at him, too preoccupied with his cell phone to care who he was giving a room to as long as he got the money.

Teddy hadn't even thought about money until the boy gave him the price in pounds, not Galleons. He'd known a moment of panic, feeling only Galleons in his money bag. But then his fingers found the Muggle notes, change left over from outing with Harry and Ginny or Ron and Hermione, an accumulation of the little bit of Christmas money Hermione's parents gave all the Weasley kids each year; barely enough to cover a night at the little inn.

His room was cold and musty. The radiator in the corner rattled and wheezed to life every now and then, but it sounded as though it was ancient and could hardly battle out the cold December morning. He had not slept at all. All the things he'd shouted, all the things Harry had shouted back kept reverberating around his head, try as he might to push them out and a miserable knot had formed in his stomach.

Teddy was staring in a daze at the edge of the pale sun, which had just peaked over the roof of the building across the street when his door was thrown open with such force that it bounced off the wall behind it with a loud bang. Teddy jerked around, groping for his wand, and fell off the bed into a heap on the dusty floor.

"Teddy Remus Lupin, what the hell?"

His godfather's voice rang in the small room. And then someone was pulling him up, sitting him down on the bed. Harry knelt in front of him, like he'd done when Teddy was little, looking up into Teddy's face and gripping his forearms. There was something in his hard, intense gaze that made Teddy look down, the beginnings of guilt and shame forming somewhere inside him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Teddy mumbled, looking fixedly at his hands. He felt Harry's hands tighten briefly, almost painfully, around his arms before he stood up and began to pace in front of him.

"What exactly was going through your mind when you decided to just take off in the middle of the night?" Harry asked finally. "I mean, did you think, maybe, Ginny and I _wouldn't_ have a panic attack? Or was that all part of the plan?"

"No," Teddy said miserably. "I wasn't thinking. I dunno. I was just mad, okay? I'm sorry." He muttered the last part, barely coherently.

Harry let out a heavy sigh and sank down onto the windowsill opposite Teddy.

"I don't know what to do with you, Teddy," he admitted, and there was more than frustration and anger in his voice, there was a note of defeat.

Teddy shrugged. He didn't know what to do with himself either.

"Can I come back? To your place, I mean?" he asked in a small voice.

Harry snorted. "Yeah. You're grounded there for the rest of the Holidays, you know." He stood up. "Come on, Teddy, let's go home."

They walked along the winding road out of Godric's Hollow in silence. Snow had begun to fall gently, gathering on their shoulders and in their hair as they walked. Teddy shivered. All he had were sneakers, which did absolutely nothing to keep the snow from soaking his socks. He shoved his hands in his pockets, but they were still stinging with cold without gloves, and his ears had long since gone numb. He had asked Harry if they could just apparate back to the house, but Harry had only laughed hollowly and started walking.

Teddy felt rather empty. The anger that had pounded in him since they'd started talking about the war, about all the brave _heroes _who had given their lives, had somehow been diminished, and at the moment, Teddy couldn't find it at all.

"I didn't mean it," he said very quietly as they trudged through the snow.

Harry didn't answer, and Teddy wasn't sure if he'd heard.

"When I said I hated them… I didn't mean it."

He glanced uncertainly at his godfather, but Harry's expression was inscrutable.

"I know you didn't," he said at last.

"But why'd they both have to go?" Teddy couldn't help but burst out bitterly. "Why was it so easy for them to just walk away?"

"You think it was easy?" Harry asked sharply.

Teddy gave a miserable jerk of the head.

"It wasn't easy," Harry told him, force behind the quiet words. "It's never easy."

When Teddy had been little, Harry had sometimes gotten furious with Tonks for choosing her own peace of mind over her son, for leaving Teddy even after she had agreed to stay. But then his own children had come and he had still gone off on missions, still risked his life and risked not being around for them. Because he couldn't _not_. He had to know that the world was a better place for them. And it wasn't until then that he fully understood what Remus had told him before he entered the forest the night of the battle, it wasn't until then that he stopped being angry with Tonks.

But he didn't know how to explain this to Teddy.

"I can't tell you how much they loved you," Harry began. "I can't prove to you that _you_ and _your _future was the reason they fought so hard. It's just something you've got to _know_. To be loved so powerfully, even though the people who loved us are gone, it leaves a mark, Teddy…"

He trailed off as memories swept over him. Teddy was staring up at him as though struggling to understand.

"You'll know what I mean eventually," Harry assured him "You'll know. Once you stop being mad."

A faint heat crept into Teddy's face and he looked down again. They walked a little further in silence before Teddy spoke again.

"Did –" he stopped, biting his lip. "Were you ever angry at your parents?"

"It was different for me," Harry said gently. "I didn't know anything about my parents until I was eleven and after that there wasn't a lot of time or emotion to spare for being angry with them. And it wasn't their fault that they were murdered… if anything, it was because of me…"

Teddy snapped his head up to look at Harry. He had never heard that part of the story before, but the look on Harry's face then made him decide against asking.

"My godfather on the other hand," Harry went on, shaking his head a little. "He ran headlong into battle because he just couldn't resist. He was frustrated and trapped and he wanted to help me, but Dumbledore told him to stay put. He didn't.

"It took me a long time to get angry about it, and I didn't stay mad long… but by then I was grown up and I had you and I could understand better…

"It's okay to be angry," he told Teddy, returning to the moment again. "But just… don't let it consume you. And don't forget that they really did love you."

Teddy nodded, sniffling a little, and drew his cloak tighter around his shoulders. Suddenly Harry's heavy cloak was being draped around him too, and his godfather's arm was around his shoulders. In the distance, he could see the white dot against the trees that was the Potters' house, smoke furling out of the chimney against the white sky in gray wisps.

And Teddy knew one thing. His parents had made sure, if they couldn't be there for him, someone would be. Someone always would be.

**A/N: Was that okay? I've actually been working on this one since I started the story last year and I never could quite get it right, but I think this was okay? Sorry for the load of angst in the last couple chapters. Hopefully the next two chapters won't be so heavy. Now I'm gonna let you review! ;) **


	17. Flying

**A/N: Hey everybody! I'm back in under a month! Yes! So here's a little bit of a lighter chapter since the last few have been pretty heavy! Hope you all enjoy it!**

"Teddy? Where've you got off to?"

"In here, Gran! I can't find my boots!"

"They're under the bench, love! You'd better be quick. Harry's going to be here any minute!"

Teddy sat on the worn bench in the scullery off his Grandmother's kitchen. He had already laced up his boots ages ago, but he did not want to come out to wait by the fireplace just yet. He swung his legs slightly nervously, scuffing the floor with his toes. The brand new racing broom Harry and Ginny had given him for his eighth birthday not two weeks ago rested on his knees.

He was taking it out for the first time ever. As Harry had promised, he was going to start teaching Teddy how to fly.

"Better to know before you get to Hogwarts," he had said, winking in a way that made Teddy think there was a story behind his words. "Save you quite a bit of nerves and embarrassment."

Teddy had been extremely excited when he'd ripped the paper off Harry and Ginny's gift. He'd had a feeling it would be a broom, even before he saw the broom-shaped package, but he'd had no idea how thrilling it would be to hold his very own glossy-handled, top-of-the-line broomstick in his hands.

But now that the glow of having a real broom, just like Harry and Ginny and most of Ginny's brothers, had faded somewhat, and he was facing the prospect of being two stories above the ground with nothing but this glossy bit of wood keeping him up…. Well, Teddy was not as keen as he'd expected to give it a try.

He had seen plenty of Quidditch matches and always managed to get swept up in the excitement, the suspense, the swiftly-moving action. And of course he'd wondered, once in a while, what it would be like to soar above the ground like that, so fast and graceful that it seemed as natural as breathing to them. But now it came time for him to find out, all he could think of was what it would be like to fall.

"I'm _not _going to fall," he murmured to himself, as if speaking the words could make them more true. "I'm _not_."

There was a roar of flames from the other side of the door and Teddy heard his godfather's voice greeting his grandmother. Clutching his new broom tightly, he took a great breath to steel himself and slid off the bench.

"Hey, Ted!" Harry said enthusiastically the moment he caught sight of Teddy poking his head around the scullery door. Harry had his own broomstick over his shoulder and a huge grin on his face that made him look closer to twelve than twenty-five. "Ready to get in the air?"

Teddy plastered a grin onto his own face and mustered all the excitement he could.

"Yeah! I've been waiting for two weeks!" he trilled, dashing over to Harry and accidentally sending a bowl of apples crashing to the floor with the handle of his broom.

Andromeda righted it with a wave of her wand and looked apprehensively at the pair of them.

"You'll be _very _careful, won't you?" she asked.

"Of course," Harry assured her, ruffling Teddy's hair. "Tonks was as clumsy as he is, and she was good on a broom."

"Really?" Teddy asked, distracted for a moment by this information about his mother.

"Sure was," Harry grinned. In all honesty, he had only ever seen Tonks on a broom twice, and both times had been to whisk him away from Privet Drive in the dead of night. But she must have been pretty good if she could battle Death Eaters like she had in midair.

"Well, we'd better get going while we've still got daylight, eh Teddy?" Harry said, clapping him on the back and steering him towards the back door. "I'll have him in by supper," he added over his shoulder to Andromeda.

"Where're we going?" Teddy asked, hurrying a little to keep up with Harry's swift strides.

"There's a field up here your gran told me your mum used to use. Behind some old warehouse that's been empty for decades. Ought to be good, yeah? You can get pretty high without having to worry."

Teddy was not as delighted about this fact as Harry seemed to be. But he grinned anyway. He couldn't let on that he was anything less than giddy about finally learning to fly. Not with Harry more excited than he had nearly ever seen him. Not when Harry and Ginny were both amazing Quidditch players and little Jamie was already zooming around on a toy broomstick like he'd been born to fly. Even the baby growing in Ginny's bulging belly would surely be a prodigy on a broom, too.

It was a good ten minute walk out to the field. Teddy stood nervously with his broom, watching Harry cast Muggle-repelling charms all around them, just to be safe. Then he turned to Teddy.

"Let's get started, then."

The first part wasn't so bad. Teddy didn't even have to get an inch off the ground. Harry showed him how to grip the handle so he wouldn't slide off the end, how to mount neatly and quickly, and how to dismount without falling flat on his face (which happened the first time he tried, much to Teddy's embarrassment).

"Not so hard, then, is it?" Harry asked, brushing some dirt off Teddy's shoulder. "Think you're ready to leave the ground?"

Teddy did not think he was ready. In fact, he wasn't sure that he would _ever_ be ready. But one look at Harry's shining face had him nodding. _Mum was good at this_, he reminded himself as he swung a leg over his broom and held on exactly as Harry had shown him.

Harry nodded approvingly.

"Watch first, then you can try," he instructed, mounting his own broom.

Harry still rode a Firebolt. Even when he'd bought it eight years ago, it hadn't been the top-of-the-line anymore, but he refused to ride anything else, for reasons Teddy didn't know. He was perfectly happy to drop a small fortune on a brand new comet seven-twenty for his eight-year-old godson.

Harry kicked off the ground and shot upwards, rising twenty feet in about two seconds. His whole body seemed to lighten in a way Teddy rarely saw, as if he'd left the weight of the world back on the ground. He wheeled round and soared off around the edge of the field, turning into a blur, circling a bare flagpole at the other end and shooting back to land gracefully in front of his gaping godson.

"You should probably start smaller," Harry told him, grinning sheepishly. "How about pushing off and hovering a few feet off the ground, and then coming back down. Remember, you only need to lean forward a little bit to come down, otherwise you'll be nosediving straight into the ground."

Teddy nodded, mouth slightly dry, and braced himself for flight. But then a whole new fear stuck him. What if he _couldn't _get off the ground? What if he pushed off and fell straight back to earth in a pathetic, gravity-bound heap?

And it was with that thought that he kicked hard against the ground – and did not come back down. In fact, he went rather higher than he'd meant to. And was still rising. Before he knew it he was level with the top of the flag pole, the ground falling away.

Panicking, Teddy jerked forward, pointing his broom handle nearly straight at the ground. And then he was going down as fast as he'd gone up, hurtling towards the packed earth, and Harry was shouting something, but he couldn't hear it over the wind and the panic roaring in his ears.

A second before he crashed into the dirt, Teddy tried to pull up. The world swung at sickening angles and his clammy hands lost hold of the broom handle. There was a terrifying half-second of tumbling through nothing and then he slammed into something very hard and very solid, knocking all the air out of him and maybe his lungs, too.

"_Teddy!_"

Harry's white face loomed hazily above him.

"Are you okay?"

Teddy tried to re-inflate his chest to answer, his head swimming. He felt hands slide under his back and sit him up. The hands slid down his arms and legs, moving his joints gently, pressing lightly on his chest as he gasped in air and the world stopped spinning.

"Easy, mate. I think you're alright. Nothing broken," Harry soothed. "Exciting first ride, though."

He gave a slightly shaky laugh, running a hand through Teddy's windswept turquoise hair. Reassured a little, Teddy managed a weak chuckle.

"I _told_ you not to lean forward too steeply," Harry said ruefully, squeezing Teddy's shoulders. But it wasn't really a reprimand.

"I'm sorry!" said Teddy breathlessly. "I didn't mean to go that high and then I just panicked!"

"It's all right," Harry assured him. "Perfectly understandable. No harm done. Just, next time, don't push off so hard. Take it slow."

He smiled encouragingly as he helped Teddy to his feet again, but all Teddy had heard out of the advice was 'next time'. He was supposed to do that again? But he'd fall again! He'd lose control again and crash! He'd probably break his neck!

Apparently Harry hadn't thought about that, because he had jogged over to retrieve Teddy's broom, where it had landed a few yards away from him, and was now sticking it back in his hands.

"Think you're ready to give it another try?" he asked, kneeling in front of Teddy so that they were on a level.

_No. Not ever._ "Okay, I guess."

Teddy needed a way out, fast. So as he swung one leg over his broom, he winced and staggered sideways with a small whimper of pain. Harry caught him, looking instantly concerned.

"What's the matter?"

"My ankle," Teddy said through gritted teeth, gripping his right ankle with both hands. "I twisted it, I think."

Harry gently took Teddy's foot and rolled down his sock to inspect the ankle.

"Doesn't look like it's swelling," he said, frowning, but the moment he touched it, Teddy yelped in pain.

"I don't think I can push off again, Harry," he said miserably, attempting to take a step and staggering again.

"I suppose that's the end of our first lesson," Harry sighed, watching Teddy cradle his hurt ankle anxiously. "Better head in."

Teddy felt his insides squirm guiltily at the disappointment on his godfather's face.

"Here, I'll give you a lift," Harry said, patting his shoulder.

Teddy scrambled onto his back, taking care not to jostle his right ankle.

"You're gran's gonna have my head though," Harry said slightly breathlessly as he stood up, trying to keep hold of two brooms and hoist Teddy higher on his back without overbalancing.

"S'not your fault," Teddy mumbled with another guilty squirm, resting his cheek on Harry's shoulder.

"I gave you the broom," Harry said with a wry smile.

XxXxX

Teddy got lucky. It rained nearly all of the next week, and when it had finally stopped, Harry was busy with a case at work. Ginny said she would have loved to take Teddy flying, but as she was five months pregnant, it wasn't the best idea.

And so, Teddy's broom sat, untouched, in the corner of the scullery. Most of the time, Teddy was perfectly content with this. But whenever he caught sight of the sleek, glossy thing propped up in the corner, collecting dust, a strange mixture of guilt and disappointment welled up in him. Not only was he letting Harry and Ginny's beautiful birthday gift rot away, but he was also, in a way, getting left behind in their family. What was he going to do? Sit on the ground while the rest of the Potters played a rousing game of Quidditch or went off for a family fly?

Once, after waking up from a dream in which Harry and Ginny and two dark-haired children zoomed around him, the children taunting him as they spiraled and swooped, Harry and Ginny not seeming to notice him at all, no matter how loudly he yelled to them, Teddy crept down to the scullery with the idea of maybe just practicing a little bit.

But when the moment came for him to kick off from the mossy ground behind his grandmother's potting shed, he couldn't do it. The image of the ground falling fast and then rushing back up to slam into him, the dizzying, sickening feeling of spinning out of control kept him rooted to the spot.

He couldn't do it. He was going to get left behind.

XxXxX

It was nearly June when Harry finally managed to get a free afternoon to take his godson flying again. He arrived early at Andromeda's out of both anticipation to get in the air and guilt that it had been so long since the last time he'd taken Teddy out.

Andromeda was sipping coffee at the table when he came spinning out of the fireplace.

"Never will get the hang of those landings, will you?" she smiled as Harry staggered onto the hearth rug, clutching the mantel to stay upright.

"You'd think after fourteen years…" he muttered, brushing the soot off his glasses. "Teddy ready?"

Andromeda frowned a little. "Well, you can go up and see him, but he says he's not feeling well today."

Harry looked crestfallen. "He's ill?"

"Hasn't gotten out of bed. I would have sent you an owl, but I thought you might like to talk to him anyway," Andromeda told him a bit enigmatically.

"Er, okay," Harry said, turning for the stairs.

"There wasn't anything wrong with his ankle, you know," Andromeda added.

Harry turned around. "What d'you mean?"

"He limped around the house for half a day, but couldn't seem to remember which ankle was the one hurting him," she explained, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

Harry frowned. "But why did he say he'd gotten hurt if he hadn't?"

Andromeda got up to refill her coffee cup. "Why do you suppose he isn't feeling well today?"

He headed up the stairs to Teddy's bedroom, knocking softly on the door before he poked his head in. Teddy was curled into a ball beneath the covers, nothing but his turquoise mop visible.

"Hey there, Teddy-bear," Harry said quietly, perching on the edge of Teddy's bed. He lifted the edge of the quilt to peek in at Teddy's face. He looked ill, his face pale with sweat beading on his brow. He had his eyes squeezed shut, but when he felt the fresh air on his face, one of them popped open to look at Harry. "Your gran tells me you're sick."

Teddy coughed theatrically and sniffed loudly.

"Hmm, I see," Harry said seriously, feeling Teddy's burning forehead, then the sides of his throat. "It's worse than I thought," he muttered, pulling back the blankets and lifting one of Teddy's bare feet to his ear, eliciting a hastily stifled giggle from the little boy.

Harry grabbed one of the books off of Teddy's bedside table (_The Tales of Beedle the Bard )_ and flipped it open, apparently not noticing that it was upside-down.

"Ah, here we are," he announced, stabbing a finger at the page and reading gravely. "Fraudinitus; a common illness found primarily in children wishing to avoid some chore or activity they would otherwise be obligated to take part in. Symptoms are usually, but not always, a result of one or more Skiving Snack boxes –"

Here, Harry's hand darted out and grabbed a crumpled purple carton nearly hidden under Teddy's bed. He flipped it around so that they could both see the bright orange letters labeling it 'fever fudge'.

"Huh, look at that," he said, looking from the box to Teddy, who had burrowed back under his covers again.

Harry settled against Teddy's headboard and pulled back the blankets again to look down at him.

"Why didn't you just tell me you didn't want to go flying, Ted?" he asked softly. "It's not as if I would have tied you to your broom."

Teddy had his face buried in his pillow, so his answer came out as muffled gibberish.

"Sorry, Didn't catch that," Harry told him, gently rolling him over.

"S'not that I don't _want _to," Teddy mumbled miserably.

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"It's just… I just…" Teddy trailed off, unable to find words to explain.

"Teddy," Harry sighed, pushing Teddy's sweaty bangs off his forehead. "You don't have to like flying or playing Quidditch just because Ginny and I do, or even because your mum did. There're plenty of other things we can all do together, and plenty of other things we can spoil you with on your birthday."

He smiled, but Teddy knew there was disappointment that he could not share the exhilaration of flying with his godson in it. He hastened to explain, but the snack boxes were extremely effective and his fever was making his head fuzzy.

"But I like Quidditch!" he protested, pushing himself up. "I do! And I – I want to fly, too. It's just the learning part I don't want to do."

"Well, you'll find it hard to fly without learning," Harry said bemused.

"I know! That's the problem," Teddy muttered, rubbing his forehead. "It's – wh-what if I fall?" the last words came out a whisper and he ducked his head, embarrassed.

"Then I'll catch you," Harry promised.

"Like last time?" Teddy asked, looking up at Harry from under his fringe.

"Er, no," Harry said sheepishly. Then, getting an idea, said "How about we don't do anything like last time? What d'you say to one more try? I promise you won't fall."

Teddy hesitated, biting his lip. "Promise? Cross your heart?"

Harry solemnly crossed his heart. Teddy nodded.

XxXxX

Teddy looked dubiously at Harry's Firebolt.

"You're sure this'll work?" he asked, arching an eyebrow in a way he'd picked up from Hermione when she was presented with particularly iffy evidence.

" 'Course I'm sure," Harry assured him, swinging a leg over the broom.

Teddy took a faltering step forward. "And you'll be able to steer it?"

"Yes, Ted. Don't worry. I've had experience," he grinned.

Teddy clambered onto the broom in front of Harry, turning around to say earnestly, "Just don't go _too _high, okay?"

"Got it," Harry promised.

He gripped the handle in front of Teddy with one hand and wrapped the other arm around his godson's waist.

"Ready?"

Teddy nodded, holding onto the handle so hard his knuckles were white.

"Alright, three – two – one!"

Harry kicked off from the ground, carefully balancing their weight so that they rose smoothly and steadily. Teddy squeezed his eyes shut so he would not have to see how far down the ground was getting. He felt Harry lean forward a little and his stomach lurched as they rushed forward. But he didn't lose his grip, he didn't slip sideways, they didn't crash into anything.

Slowly, Teddy opened his eyes. He couldn't help but gasp. The field was rushing underneath him, nearly ten feet away, warm, early-summer air was whipping his face. Harry guided them into a wide, smooth turn, the tips of leaves on a tree at the edge of the field just brushing Teddy's cheek.

His stomach swooped as they looped around the flagpole, rising a little higher into the brilliant blue sky. But they weren't falling or crashing, and at this realization, a thrill of exhilaration shot through him.

For the first time, he really felt the air whipping through his hair, the sunlight on his face, the lightening feeling of leaving the ground behind. A slow grin broke out on his face.

**A/N: What'd you think? I can't believe I've only got one chapter left to write! And an epilogue, so two more updates! Never fear though. The end of this story doesn't mean the end of THE story. :D**


	18. Moonlight

**A/N: Yes, I'm back :D And for the last time! I'm posting this chapter and the epilogue together 'cause they're done and both a little short and you are all so wonderful and deserve a double post! I hope you like this chapter! :)**

The clock on the mantel showed that it was two-thirty in the morning. Less than five hours before Harry Potter was expected to be at the ministry, ready to sit his one year evaluation in the Auror department. And his godson would not stop crying.

Harry paced up and down the Burrow's dark living room, a fourteen-month-old Teddy wailing into his shoulder and no sign of rest in sight.

"Please stop crying, Teddy. Please? For me?" Harry pleaded tiredly.

Pleading was all he had left. He had tried everything else: Teddy's favorite pacifier, the teething rings Andromeda had cast a freezing charm on, every toy in the little chest Mrs. Weasley now kept in the corner of the living room, even, at Mr. Weasley's advice, a pop sickle out of the icebox. Teddy wouldn't have any of it.

And so Harry paced back and forth, bouncing Teddy gently, desperate to get him to quiet down, even for just a little bit. He thought he might go deaf from Teddy's screeching in his ear. His arms felt like lead because every time he put Teddy down, his godson would wail even louder, waving his little hands in Harry's direction and fixing him with big beseeching eyes.

Why it had to be tonight that Teddy chose not to be the wonderful, _quiet _little baby he usually was past eight o'clock, Harry thought, must be some kind of karmic joke.

Tomorrow morning… actually _that _morning, now, Harry was to be evaluated by his head of the Auror office. It would involve not only a written examination, but also a practical test in the training room and observation on field work. Not the kind of thing to show up to sleep-deprived.

And on top of that, tonight was the first night ever, that Harry had Teddy basically all on his own. There was almost always _someone _around the Burrow to help out, but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had taken their first vacation since Egypt and gone up to visit one of Mr. Weasley's brothers. Ginny, of course, was still at Hogwarts, probably studying for the last of her N.E.W.T.s. Hermione had dragged Ron along with her to one of her cousins' weddings. George was sleeping in the flat above the Joke shop, and there was no way Harry was going upstairs to wake Percy up for baby advice. He wasn't quite that desperate yet.

Teddy let loose a fresh wail, knocking Harry's glasses askew with one of his flailing arms. He pushed back against Harry's shoulder with a slobbery hand to look miserably up at his godfather. The person who was supposed to be able to fix all of this.

Feeling as if he'd like to wail himself, Harry sank down to the floor amid discarded toys and teething rings in defeat. He had _no idea _what he was doing. Teddy was tiny and helpless and miserable and the only person around to make things better was his clueless godfather. What on earth had Andromeda been thinking when she'd handed Teddy over to Harry saying he would be 'perfectly fine' for one night?

Harry wasn't cut out for this. He rubbed Teddy's tiny back and murmured nonsense, but none of it seemed to help at all. Teddy only stuck his fingers back in his mouth and wailed around them, bucking his head in discomfort. His turquoise hair shone silvery, gilded in moonlight.

Harry glanced out the window and noticed for the first time the bright orb of the full moon hanging low in the inky sky. Teddy scrunched up his little body against Harry's chest with a fresh cry. They didn't know how the full moon affected Teddy yet. He certainly didn't turn into a little wolf cub, but it might have something to do with why he couldn't settle down.

"I'm sorry, Teddy-bear," Harry murmured sympathetically, repositioning his squirming godson in his arms so that he could look down into his face again.

Teddy's features were screwed up in obvious discomfort, even pain, and Harry was quite at a loss to help him. It filled him with an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy.

And then he remembered what Mrs. Weasley had told him often enough: enjoy it while they're little because it only gets harder. And she was right, of course. It would only get harder. Soon Teddy would be running all over the place, getting into everything, asking questions.

What would Harry do when Teddy wanted to know about his parents? Or when he started throwing fits over taking baths or going to bed? What if he got picked on at school or got into trouble with the teachers? What if he turned into a moody, angry teenager like Harry himself had been? What if Teddy pulled dangerous stunts or got involved with the wrong crowd or started flunking out or ran away? What if he found Harry and Andromeda poor substitutes for his real parents?

If Harry couldn't even get him to stop crying now, what on earth would he do when the problems got more complicated? It wasn't as if he knew anything about parenting. Who did he have to learn from? The Dursleys? His own rash, hot-headed godfather? Remus, whom he had really barely known for three and a half years?

Remus and Tonks had been barking to think Harry could handle raising a kid. But then again, they hadn't intended him to raise their son. They'd expected to do it themselves. But they didn't have that chance now.

And suppose Harry screwed up? Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had thought the world of their son, but what they thought was loving him was really damaging him. And there were a million little ways to make mistakes with kids. Harry was in no way qualified to do this.

He rocked Teddy gently back and forth, feeling the baby's chest rising and falling as he cried. This was too important to mess up, Harry thought. But what could he do? He could hardly back out of Teddy's life now. Andromeda needed the help, and as good as she was, Teddy needed more than just his grandmother around for him.

He was trapped into something he'd fail miserably at, and Teddy would pay the price.

But no one else was there to give it a try, so Harry got back to his feet and kept pacing the living room. He told himself that he didn't have to deal with all of that tonight. Tonight it was just a crying baby. So he didn't think about what came next. Not even the evaluation he'd be starting in only a few hours on barely any sleep (if he was lucky enough to get some).

So the night wore on and the stars drifted outside the window. Eventually Teddy tired himself out to only a half-awake moaning whimper and Harry sank, half-awake himself, into the old rocking chair beside the fireplace.

"Shh, Teddy, it'll be alright," he mumbled. "Night's gotta be almost over…"

Teddy nestled is head into Harry's chest. It took him a few minutes to register that he could hear the ticking of the clock, the creak of the house once more. Teddy had fallen quiet at last. Harry blinked down at his godson, who had finally stopped crying and drifted into a peaceful doze in his arms.

He gazed blearily out the window and saw that the moon had disappeared and a faint grayish light was shimmering at the horizon. Somehow he'd managed to whether the storm. Not daring to move in case he woke Teddy up, Harry let his head fall back against the back of the rocking chair and, with one of Teddy's hands gripping his shirt, gratefully drifted off himself.

Andromeda found them like this two and a half hours later when she came to collect her grandson.

"Oh, Teddy, did you keep your poor godfather up all night?" she sighed, smiling, and gently shook Harry awake and lifted Teddy out of his arms. The little boy was fast asleep by then and didn't look like he would wake up for anything.

Harry shifted groggily in the rocking chair, feeling his stiff neck.

"What time is it?" he mumbled.

"You've got an hour to be at the Ministry," Andromeda told him, laying Teddy down in the playpen and draping a blanket over him. "I'll start some coffee for you."

Harry let his head fall back against the chair again with a soft groan.

"I dunno if coffee'll even make a difference at this point," he mumbled. "I can't do it."

"Of course you can," Andromeda said patiently (although she didn't exactly know how). "From what I've heard, you've done far more difficult things than pass an evaluation on nothing but caffeine."

"Not the Auror thing," Harry said, waving a hand. "Although I've got no idea how I'll manage that either. I mean this – this _parent _thing. I couldn't even get him to stop crying last night. I've got no idea what I'm doing! I'm going to screw up your grandkid!"

Andromeda smiled.

"No you aren't," she assured him. "He's sleeping now, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but what about when he gets older? I didn't have parents! I don't know what you're supposed to do when kids get scared in the middle of the night or – or I dunno, when he starts kissing girls and stuff!"

To Harry's surprise, instead of snatching up her grandson and heading for the hills at Harry's admissions, Andromeda laughed.

"You think any of us know what we're doing? You can raise a whole gaggle of kids and still find yourself not knowing what you're doing. It's the art of parenting. You figure it out as you go along."

"But –" Harry protested.

"You got him to stop crying and fall asleep last night, didn't you?" she pointed out. "You figured it out then and you'll figure it out when the other things come up. And it isn't as if you're on your own, you know."

"I didn't do anything," Harry admitted shamefacedly. "Last night was a full moon. All I did was walk around with him until it set and he cried himself out."

"Sometimes that's all you can do," Andromeda told him gently. "You can't always make it better, but you can always be there. If I can say anything after this year, it's that you're a good man, Harry. Teddy's lucky to have someone like you around."

She smiled down at the sleeping baby, combed his dark bangs off his forehead, then pushed herself off the floor and went into the kitchen to start the coffee.

Harry heaved himself out of the rocking chair and crawled over to take Andromeda's place beside the play pen. Resting his arms on the top, he peered down at Teddy. So this was his new challenge, the next responsibility on his shoulders. If he survived the last one, Harry thought, this one couldn't be so bad.

Teddy cooed in his sleep, stretching out one of his hands to push against Harry's knee through the net walls of the play pen. Somehow Harry didn't mind his sleepless night so much at the moment.

**A/N: Last 'chapter' chapter. :D There's now a chapter for every year of Teddy's childhood. I can't believe I finally finished. Wow! But now on to the epilogue! (Of course I would love it if, since this is a double-post, you could let me know what you think of this chapter too!)**


	19. Epilogue

**A/N: The very last chapter. I can't believe it's here! I just want to say thanks to all you wonderful, wonderful people who have stuck with me for so long! It took a year, but I'm finally finished! With this story, anyway. If you're interested in more, though, see the Author's note at the end. **

**I hope this is a good ending! **

It seemed like one of those rare golden moments when the rapid movement of time had paused, just for a little bit, enough to admire the perfection of that second. A peaceful hush lay over the bedroom. Warm sunlight crept around the curtains and filled the room with a dim glow. The house creaked pleasantly around them, the clock on the dresser ticked softly.

Teddy scarcely breathed, afraid that if he moved, the moment would burst like a soap bubble and drop them back into the speeding current of time. His eyes drifted from his wife, wrapped in the quilt on their bed, long, strawberry-blond hair spilling down her back and over her face, fluttering as she sighed in her sleep, to the little green bundle in the cradle beside her.

He marveled at this scene, unable to believe that it was really here and that he was a part of it. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation talking, but he rather thought he could live in this moment forever.

But time would never allow that.

The door opened quietly behind Teddy and he looked around. Harry slid into the room as silently as ever, smiling ruefully as if he knew what he'd interrupted.

"Thought I'd come say goodbye," he breathed.

"You're going?" Teddy breathed back, jumping up from the chair he'd been sprawled in, a sudden, unexplainable panic rising in him.

Harry put a calming hand on his shoulder, though chuckling silently.

"Someone's got to go to work, Ted. You'll be fine. Fleur and Ginny and Lily'll still be here."

Teddy nodded, swallowing as he looked back down at the little green bundle. Harry fallowed his gaze. Perhaps sensing the audience, the baby squirmed, blue eyes blinking open, and began to snuffle and fuss. Laughing a bit more at the deer-in-the-headlights expression on his godson's face, Harry scooped the baby up himself.

'Now, now. Best not to wake your mummy just yet," he murmured, looking down into the scrunched up little face. "Merlin, can't believe it's been sixteen years since I had one of these. And I _really _can't believe it's been twenty-six years since I held _you _like this," he added, grinning over at Teddy.

Teddy shrugged, edging nearer to watch the baby drifting off to sleep again.

"So I guess it'll feel like a blink before I'm saying that to him," he mumbled, unable to fathom that tiny thing being as big as him with a baby of his own.

Harry laughed softly again. "Feels like it once you're there, but really it's a whole lifetime away."

"Thank Merlin," Teddy whispered, stroking his son's tiny forehead with his pinky.

"Decided on a name yet?" Harry murmured.

"No," Teddy admitted. "Should get on that, shouldn't we? Can't believe no one told us he'd need one of those when he finally got here."

Harry laughed. There was a rustle of quilts from the bed as Victoire stirred. Lest he wake his niece from what was likely to be her only sound sleep for months, Harry carefully returned the baby to his cradle and slipped out of the room, Teddy on his heels.

"Not Remus then?" Harry asked, continuing their conversation out in the hall where they didn't have to whisper.

Teddy sank down onto the top step and looked up at Harry. "We talked about it. But, being named after a grandfather I never met myself, I dunno if I want to continue the pattern. It's a lot to live up to you know. Besides, someone ought to start being original around here or we'll be cycling through the same old names for generations. It will get quite confusing."

"I guess that's true," Harry agreed, chuckling some more as he sat down beside Teddy.

"We've decided on something else though," Teddy told him brightly.

"Oh?"

"Who the godfather should be."

"Well, that's nearly more important than a name," Harry smiled. "Who've you settled on?"

"James," Teddy told him, grinning. "Thought it was fitting. And since he was actually here when the kid was born instead of off in Ireland snogging his girlfriend like someone else in the running –"

"To be fair, Rob did seem sincerely heart-broken this morning when he heard he'd missed it," Harry pointed out in Teddy's best friend's defense.

Teddy waved away his point. "Either way, he missed out. Besides, James could do with some responsibility. Maybe it'll settle him down."

"Don't count on it," Harry grinned. "Well, James'll be over the moon about it when he finds out."

He checked the time on his watch and started.

"I'd better get going, Ted. Can't have the head running late."

He clapped Teddy on the shoulder and made to head down the stairs, but Teddy grabbed his wrist.

"Do you have to go? I mean, you practically just got your first grandchild last night."

"I'll be back after work," Harry assured him, forcibly reminded of the five-year-old he'd dropped off at primary school who wouldn't let go of his hand for anything. "You don't want the house too full of people now."

Teddy reluctantly let his hand fall back to his side, nodding glumly.

Harry debated for a second, glancing down at his watch again. But then, with a nostalgic sigh, sank back down beside his godson.

"What's up, Teddy?"

Teddy shrugged.

"Alright, then I guess I'd better get going…"

"How do you do it?" Teddy blurted out.

Harry sat back down and took in his godson's wild-eyed expression with sympathy and amusement.  
"Do what?"

"Raise a kid! Be a father! I mean, I used to think it was simple. You change nappies and make hot chocolate and read bedtime stories and resist puppy-dog eyes and just be around, but then I look at that little thing in there and his whole life is in _my _hands! There's nothing simple about it! And I've got no idea what to do!"

Teddy flopped back on the hall carpet and stared desperately up at Harry.

"Welcome to parenting," Harry told him, clapping him on the shoulder. "You're officially part of the club now, so I can let you in on a secret your gran – believe it or not – told me when you were a baby. None of us have any idea what we're doing. The best you can do is change nappies and make hot chocolate and read bedtime stories and resist puppy-dog eyes and just be around, and then figure everything else out as you go."

Teddy continued to stare up at Harry.

"That's the best you've got? I've got a seven pound bundle of life in there who's entire future hinges on my actions and the best you can do is tell me to _figure it out as I go_?"

"It worked for me, didn't it?" Harry laughed. "You think I knew what I was doing with you or the little'ens?"

He still called James, Albus, and Lily the 'little'ens' despite the fact that both his sons were out of school.

"You always seemed to know from my point of view," Teddy told him and this made Harry laugh again.

"Remember the time you destroyed my office with your first bit of accidental magic? You hid in the closet on me and nearly gave me a heart attack. Think I knew what I was doing then? Or when you were a teenager and we got into that big row over your parents? Did I seem very all-knowing in that moment? Or how about when the first time I took you flying and just about gave you a crippling phobia of heights? There were plenty of times I was just blundering through it all. But that's the wonderful thing about kids. They automatically assume you know what you're doing."

"So you're telling me it doesn't matter if I screw up because my son won't know it?"

"I'm telling you not to worry about it yet. You handle one thing at a time. Focus on changing nappies and stealing catnaps right now and the rest when it comes."

Teddy looked only slightly reassured.

"Well, I've really got to go now, Ted," Harry said, looking guiltily at the time again. "I'll see you later. Good luck, mate."

He squeezed his shoulder reassuringly before getting to his feet and finally making it down the stairs. Teddy watched him go. Then he got up and slipped quietly back into the bedroom. That golden bubble was still waiting for him, his wife fast asleep and his son bundled in the cradle beside her.

He thought about falling back into his chair and rejoining that moment as if it had never been interrupted. But it had, so instead Teddy carefully picked up his son and gazed down at him, barely breathing. And no matter what Harry said, he thought he'd be lucky to be half the father Harry had been to him.

The baby snuffled and stirred in his sleep, nestling against Teddy. And he realized that the world had changed without him even noticing. Somehow it's center had shifted to the little thing in his arms.

**A/N: Wow. It's really over. More than a year of work finally completed! I'm on such a sense-of-completion high! It's been a wonderful ride! But anyway, I said something about the story not being over. Well… confession time. Some of you might already know this, but I'm not really Bookworm1256! *Looks around furtively* Sorry about the deception. When I started writing this I didn't have my own profile, so my awesome cousin let me post this on hers! We co-author some stuff. But now I have my own profile and I've started another post-DH story. It's called snapshots and it's a lot like this story except not specifically Teddy and Harry. So if you liked this maybe you'll like that too, and some of my runoff ideas that didn't end up in this story will probably find their way into that one. If you want, I'd love it if you checked that out too! :) **

**But anyway, I've had so much fun writing this, but now I must say could bye and click the little 'complete' bubble. Thanks you all so much again! And don't forget to leave me one more review to tell me what you thought! Thanks so much!**


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